Heroes Under Drinking Age: Alpha
by oneinsanenutjob
Summary: When Amity Park is evacuated due to an "infestation", neighboring Norrisville decides to lend a hand. Meanwhile, McFist robots are acting strange and the Ninja gets a new friend in crime-fighting. How is Danny handling the end of his senior year, and how will Randy handle a foe like Vlad? Rated for violence, just to be safe. Eventually crosses with American Dragon and Kim Possible.
1. Chapter 1-1

Part I: A Little Extra Help

Chapter I:

Randy

There were a lot of things Randy Cunningham could appreciate about fighting robots versus fighting stanked kids. The main one, though, was that all of McFist's robots had the same fatal weak spot: the head. The main programming and processors were always in the head. So if you pop off the noggin, the rest goes down with it. Occasionally in some sort of explosion. There was probably some practical reason as to why they exploded upon defeat, but frankly Randy didn't care why. He just knew that the Ninja looked _pretty_ sweet with an explosion for a backdrop.

Of course, it was a little bothersome when the explosions took out part of wherever he was fighting, but eighty percent of the time he was able to just smoke bomb out of there and none of the damage actually resulted in being his problem. Besides, the people loved him. As their hero, they never bothered blaming any slightly-less-than-necessary destruction on him. It was always the bad guys fault.

Anyway, this particular Thursday happened to fall under that pesky twenty percent.

Randy had been trying to keep a robo-ape from doing...whatever it was the robo-ape was doing in the school gym (probably part of some plot to uncover him that would make perfect sense should he actually be able to hear it in its totality), when he sliced section that wasn't its head. The resulting explosion was twice the size of a normal ape explosion, and, unprepared, Randy fell clumsily into the audience seats. This still would have been all well and dandy - the Ninja had taken some harder hits in his time and walked away - except that half of the row of seats above him were rocked right out of their bolts and landed on top of him.

The Mask kept most of the dust out his mouth, but Randy was still coughing after the dust settled. "Smoke bombs I can get used to," he said to himself, "but I will _never_ get the taste of dirt out of my mouth."

Giving himself a quick once over, he found himself marginally okay, albeit covered by a stack of concrete and stadium seating, but when he tried to pull himself to out with he found himself stuck. There was plenty of light in his little cave, so when he looked back over his shoulder he got a clear view of his ankle stuck under a pile of rubble.

"...the juice?" he grumbled. He pulled at his leg and it responded with a spike up pain up his ankle and the rest of the rubble shifting over his head. "Aw, this is wonk." He took a deep breath. "It's cool, it's cool," he told himself. "I'll just bust out of here, sending debris in all directions, thus freeing my ankle. Then I can land some healing mojo on it and still be conscious enough to make it to Spanish."

"VICEROY!"

Randy picked a choice swear under his breath and leaned over to look through a crack in the rubble. While Randy was stuck, McFist had found his way to the gym floor. How he had gotten there so fast, Randy wasn't sure. Maybe he had been watching the whole time. If that was the case, he hopped McFist wouldn't realize that the Ninja was still there.

"VICEROY! Get in here!" McFist shouted. "Now what are we supposed to do? Get in here and fix this!"

"Sir," Randy leaned further to try and get a glimpse of Viceroy, but he wasn't close enough for him to make out around the rubble. "My sensors are picking up another person in the room."

Randy's gasp was blocked out by McFist's "What?!"

Randy's breath caught in his throat and tried tugging at his foot again but barely held back a cry of pain.

"Is it the Ninja?" McFist was asking.

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"Can't your "_sensors"_ find out?"

Randy was too busy panicking to hear the resulting conversation. He wasn't going to be able to get his ankle out without a serious explosion of Ninja-awesome, but the flying rubble would likely hit either McFist or Viceroy; and, as much as he hated both of them, there were some pretty large chunks of concrete and he didn't want to be responsible for seriously injuring someone. He's supposed to be a hero. On the other hand, McFist's robo-arm could probably get him out of the rubble easily, but if he pulled out the Ninja, Randy doubted he could escape so easily on his ankle.

Desperate, Randy yanked the mask off of his face, the rest of the suit peeling off with it. _The Namacon's going to kill me this time, I know it_, he thought painfully before shoving the mask down the back of his pants. Just before the first chunk of rubble shifted, Randy closed his eyes.

"What? S'just a kid!" Randy tried not to flinch when McFist shouted.

"Looks like he's unconscious."

"Oh, well...I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Shouldn't we take him to the nurse or something?"

"Well... we'll just dig him out from the rubble and put him in the hallway. I'm sure he's fine."

Randy tried not to move while he was pulled out from under the seats and roughly thrown over a large shoulder. He wasn't exactly the expert on what it would take wake someone who'd passed out, but he was pretty sure the jarring steps down the bleachers would be enough. Still, he kept his eyes shut anyway.

Maybe it said something about character that neither McFist nor Viceroy noticed, but it's not like he expected any better from them.

He was pretty sure he wasn't able to hold back the grunt when McFist's fist dropped him on the floor in the hallway, but the only sound after was that of the gym door slamming and McFist's muffled yelling. Randy lay on the floor for a moment. His ankle was throbbing and his shirt was riding up to his neck from McFist lifting him. Now all he had to do was go all ninja on his ankle then he could grab his bag from his locker and still get to-

_**RIIIIINNNNNGGGG**_

Randy's eyes popped open. "Crud."

He rolled instinctively onto his feet and regretted it immediately. His right food gave out from under him and sparks went up his leg but he started running anyway. He wasn't entirely sure how he got his bag out of his locker and kept going, but by the time he got to the door to his Spanish room he couldn't feel his toes. He threw the door open, maybe a little harder than intended, and flung himself into his seat faster than humanly possible.

"Howard," he whispered, leaning towards his best friend and putting his bag on the floor. "What did I-"

"Señior Cunningham!" Señiora Jorge shouted from the front of the class. "This is your fifth tardy this week!"

Randy held out his arms. "But it's only Thursday!"

"Do not talk back to me, chico!" She scolded. "You have been too lax in your studies. I am giving you detention."

Randy's arms fell to his sides. "Que?"

"Make that _three_ detentions," she corrected, brandishing a ruler rather threateningly. "After school. Hoy, mañana, y lunes."

Randy stuttered. "W-what does that even mean?"

"Today, tomorrow, and Mon-"

"Thank you, Debby Kang." Randy cut her off, dripping sarcasm. "Thanks."

"De nada."

Randy slammed his face into his desk and groaned.

It's not like he'd never had detention before. Okay, maybe more than a few times. But then one of them was barely a detention and they didn't even stay through the whole thing because of the whole tengu business; and the other time, Principal Slimovitz had been going detention crazy so it was easy to hide behind the other forty kids crammed in the room that day. This was different. This was "sit with three or four other kids for an hour under the scrutinizing glare of the band director". But these wouldn't be, "I ran too fast in the cafeteria" kids. These would be "I shoved a dork in a locker right after I took his underwear out of his pants and decorated my breakfast with his tears" kids.

"Tough luck, bromigo." Howard whispered. "So listen, since today's plans are obviously cancelled, can I still borrow some cash for the Game Hole?"

Randy rolled his head to look up and glare at Howard.

"Alright, alright." Howard sniffed. "Just because you're screwed doesn't mean we all have to be."

Randy moaned and wrapped his arms around his head. The desk was starting to feel especially comfortable for some reason. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the past week. Between Grave Puncher marathons and the one late night ninja mission, sleep wasn't exactly a priority.

"Aw, c'mon, bro. You've handled worse." Howard told him, giving him a hard pat on the back. When he got no response he poked Randy in the arm. "Bro?"

Howard slowly lifted his bro's arm from his face only to find his eyes closed and his mouth hanging open slightly, letting out sleeping breaths.

* * *

"Randy! Hey,Cunningham!"

Randy snapped up in his chair so fast his back popped. "What! What's happening?" He whipped a trail of drool off his chin, more than a little grossed out with himself, and glanced around the room at the kids standing up around him. "Did class end? I didn't hear the bell."

"Calm down, bro," Howard told him. "There was just an announcement. We're all supposed to meet up on the yard, out in front of the building."

Randy blinked up at him, working the sleepy blur out of his eyes. Had he really just fallen asleep in class? "What for?" he asked.

Howard shrugged. "Some assembly or something. C'mon, we're falling behind."

Running a hand through his hair, Randy lifted his bag off the floor and unfolded himself out of his seat to follow Howard. He went maybe two steps before stumbling and nearly falling on his face. He caught himself on a desk, but fire went up his ankle.

"Cunningham, come on!" Howard turned around at the doorway. The rest if the class had already filed out. A look of concern passed his face when he saw Randy. "You okay, man?"

"I think my ankle's busted," Randy ground out through his teeth. "I can probably fix it with some Art of Healing, but I need somewhere to do it."

"But we're supposed to be out front for the assembly."

"If that many people see me limping around they'll get suspicious if I heal it later."

"You could just...not heal it?" Howard didn't look too convinced either.

"Yeah, because the Ninja will have such an easy time beating up stank monsters and robots with a broken ankle?"

"Well..." Howard bounced on his toes. "Alright, do it here, I'll watch the door." He quickly shut the door behind him.

Quickly, Randy sat down on one of the desks and propped his ankle up on another. As he sat, it felt awkward and he flinched when he remembered why. Guiltily, he pulled the mask out of his pants. Looking at it in his hands, he had a brief moment of wondering how many other ninjas have done that. _I put this thing on my face..._ Randy shrugged. Not like it was the first time he's stuck it down his pants.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled it on. "Aw, it's warm!" he whined while the suit covered the rest of him.

Taking a deep breath, he held his hands out to his ankle. The sensation was tingly and warm, but the energy sap happened almost just as fast. He had to stop before he was sure he was done to keep from falling asleep again right there.

Randy gave himself a hard shake and slapped either side of his face. Carefully at first, he took his foot off the desk and rolled it around a little. It felt a little stiff, but it didn't hurt. More confidently, he took a few steps across the room.

"Healing powers are so _bruce_." He cheered, before pulling the mask off and grabbing his bag. Just before shoving the mask inside, he caught the glow coming from the Nomicon coming from behind his forgotten Spanish book. "Nomicon? What no-"

"Cunningham! You done yet?"

"I'm coming, Howard!" He glanced guiltily at the book before zipping his bag shut. "Not now, Nomicon. I'll be there soon, okay?" he mumbled, mostly to himself, before swinging the bag over his shoulder.

In the hallway, Heidi ran up to them. "Howard!" she shouted, holding her phone up to his face. "What is this?"

"Uhm," Howard squinted at the screen. "A message from our parents?" His eyes skimmed for a moment then went wide. He grabbed the phone from his sister and read the message again. "What!"

"That's what I'm asking!" Heidi gesticulated.

"What are we asking?" Randy asked.

"Oh, hey Sandy," Heidi greeted. "I didn't see you there."

"It's still Randy, but thanks."

"Our parents are saying to meet then on the yard outside," Howard said, still staring at the phone in horror.

Randy's own eyes widened. "Your parents are at school?"

"My parents are at school."

"Did they send you the same message?"

Howard pulled his own phone out of his pocked and flipped through it. "Negative."

"Then we can pretend you didn't get the memo and we can watch the assembly from the roof." The words came out in a tumble. "Come on, let's go!"

Howard tossed Heidi's phone back to her ("Hey!") while Randy grabbed him by they backpack and pulled him in the other direction. His ankle was still sore, but at least he could move on it now.

Up on the roof, which was conveniently left unlocked after a particularly slow day for the Ninja, Howard and Randy dropped their bags in the shade of the clock tower and leaned over the edge to see to the ground. Three stories down, a crowd was forming around a temporary stage set up on the front steps, below them. There were also several lines of cars, still growing, along the street curb where there were no more parking spaces.

"I don't think your parents are the only ones here," Randy observed, spotting Mrs. McFist among the crowd, her husband absent, but she stood next to Bash instead. The yard was littered with other small groups of parents and kids.

"Is this a meeting for the whole town?" Howard asked.

Randy shrugged.

"Attention! Attention, town members!" Principal Slimovitz' voice blasted out of his megaphone across the yard. "Thank you very much for coming today. Now, as some of you may know, one of our neighboring towns has been having a little...pest control issue, so the entire population is being formally evacuated by government officials until this mess gets sorted out."

"'Neighboring towns?'" Randy turned to Howard. "We have neighboring towns?"

"I don't know dude, we're like, in the Middle of Nowhere, Nowhere."

"Wait, isn't there some po-dunk town like, twenty miles from here? Anxiety Park or something?" Randy scratched his head, thinking. "I heard it's full of psychos."

"Well, sure," Howard reasoned. "But have you taken a good look at Norisville? I mean, there's a giant metal pyramid in the middle of town."

"Fair point."

"Now, now," Principal Slimovitz tried to calm the crowd. "We have been guaranteed that the infestation has been contained. The residents, however, are in need of places to stay, and our fair town has so graciously decided to volunteer!"

"Since when?"

"No, no, I think I've heard about this." Howard said. "I heard my dad talking about some sort of community vote for something or other. I wasn't really listening, it was lasagna night."

"Ooh, the one with the extra cheese layers?"

Howard patted his stomach. "Oh, yes."

"The residents will be arriving this weekend and we've already set up the list of families matched to families. So, today, we have their mayor, here to speak on their behalf."

There was an awkward applause amongst the crowd as a well-trimmed man was handed Slimovitz' megaphone. His hair was fully gray and pulled back into a low tail, but he couldn't have been any older than his early forties. He ran a hand down the front of his suit after shaking Slimovitz' hand.

"Hello, citizens of Norrisville," he stated. "I was so sorry to hear that your own mayor was not available today, but, none the less, I am grateful to you all. So many of you have agreed to lend us a helping hand in our time of need, and we can never repay you enough." He made a polite chuckle and held up a hand. "My apologies, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Vlad Masters, and I speak to you on behalf of the people of Amity Park."

* * *

**So there's this side (which I'm calling the Alpha side) to this story, and then there's the other side (the Beta side) that features American Dragon, Jake Long, and Kim Possible, and everything that they're at the same time. I'll be posting both sides separately here, and both will eventually be posted on my tumblr (same user) along with all the random art I draw for it.**

**Reviews are appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 1-2

"Vlad Masters, Vlad Masters..." Randy rolled the name off his tongue a few times. "Where have I head that name before?"

"Try famous gazillionaire," Howard told him over the sound if the applause from the ground. "Owner of Mastersoft and about a billion other companies. I'm pretty sure the guy has more of the green stuff than McFist."

"That's possible?"

Howard only nodded.

Down on the grass, the crowd had mostly broken into conversation. Someone else - the housing organizer, they said - was talking about coming up to the stage to find what family had been assigned to live in what other family's house.

"So did your parents decide to go through with this whole thing?" Randy asked.

"I think so," Howard replied. "We have a pretty big house. I'm sure we have room to spare."

"Your dad owns an entire company, I'm still surprised your house isn't bigger," Randy scoffed, pushing off the side and towards his backpack. "Hey I wonder if my parents agreed to take anyone."

"In your house? Dude, I'm surprised the people you have fit."

"It's not _that_ small, it's just...cozy." Randy unzipped his bag only to get nearly blinded by the Nomicon light. "Gah! Nomicon!" He whined. "Alright, alright!"

"Ninja book mad at you again?"

"Yeah..." Randy blew a strand of hair from his face. "Probably going to yell me about the evils of sleeping in class or something."

Randy moved to open the book, but a scream stopped him. He turned over his shoulder in time to watch Howard look back over the ledge, jumping a little to compensate for his height. "We've got a rogue bat-viper, twelve o'clock!"

Randy looked guilty at the Nomicon. "Later, I promise," he said quietly before pulling out the mask and throwing it over his head. He automatically closed his eyes against the flash of light while the suit wrapped around him and when he opened his eyes he could feel the less than comfortable rub of the fabric where his eyebrows moved.

"Go get 'em, Ninja," Howard encouraged. "I'll stay up here and take stock on your after school snacks."

"You do that Howard," Randy responded from where he now stood in the ledge, not really listening. He threw up a hand a jumped. With expert timing, he yelled, "Smoke bomb!" and threw down his hand. A smoke bomb appeared, just like it always did, just in time to roll out of his hand and explode on the stage, covering his landing. The citizens and students were already going through the standard evacuation procedure (get the heck out of the Ninja's way) but Mayor Masters was still standing on stage. The bat-viper was screeching and flapping around on the grass. But it hadn't hurt anyone yet, so Randy turned to the mayor. "Not to worry, sir," he said in all confidence. "I, the Norrisville Ninja, will handle this."

Without a second glance at Mayor Masters' surprised face, he leapt off the stage and pulled out a few sai. The bat-viper was swinging its head around, which is all normal behavior for a batviper, but something about its movements seemed, more wild. When it turned to the Ninja, Randy's eyes widened in surprise. Its eyes were glowing red.

It looked at him for a moment before letting out a scratchy cackle. It made a kind of squeal like it was trying to speak, but there wasn't any process that the robot could go through to make the right sounds. The whole thing came out like a bunch of clanks and metallic screeches that seemed to go in forever. It even threw its head back like it was pronouncing itself to the world. "Okay... I didn't get a word of that, do you think you could say it again?" Randy asked.

The bat-viper made almost a sort of shrug before beginning the same round of deafening screeches. This time they almost seemed to begin forming into words, but Randy didn't bother wait through it this time. Instead he threw one of his sai, end over end, and watched it tear off a wing. The bat-viper screeched in protest and stared the Ninja down with a look full of more hatred than Randy had ever seen in a robot. Even the semi-sentient robo-apes couldn't glare like that. The glow of its eyes even gained intensity.

Play time was over, apparently, because the bat-viper lunged forward. The Ninja "Ninja dodge!"-ed, leaping back and high, flipping his feet over his head, and was shocked to watch the robot follow. He landed lightly in the stage and immediately "Ninja roll!"-ed to the side just before the bat-viper's face slammed into the floor, cracking the stage in half. It started to lift itself, but its face had gotten stuck in a hole in the stage.

Randy laughed. "Okay, what is _up_ with this thing?"

Out of nowhere, something slammed into the back on his head. He saw stars for a second, holding a hand to his head. "What the juice?" Randy turned around to the sight of Slimovitz' megaphone floating mid-air. It was bobbing up and down like it was getting ready for another go at some Ninja-skull.

It was also glowing a radioactive shade of green.

"Y'know, I don't think juice is a big enough word today," he said before ducking. The megaphone sped right over his head and crashed through a window into the school. Randy briefly wondered where exactly all the bystanders had run off to until something else slammed into him from behind, throwing him off the stage and sliding him across the grass. _Aw, that's ganna bruise_, he thought, sitting up and rubbing a hand across his back. Turning, again, this time he saw a desktop computer floating above the bat-viper. It's cords were winding around the robot's tail and started to pull. It was glowing just like the megaphone.

Momentarily stunned, Randy had only just gotten to his feet by the time the computer pulled out the bat-viper's head. The robot shook its head violently before turning on the Ninja, red eyes angry. It let out a metallic screech that could have been classified as a roar. At the same time, the computer started wrapping around and connecting to the bat-viper.

"Hold on," Randy complained. "Since when can these things upgrade?"

The cables from the computer extended from the bat-viper like tentacles, waving around menacingly while the bat-viper opened its mouth. Somewhere deep in its throat, something started glowing; and Randy knew enough about video games to know that spelled bad news. "Emergency smoke bomb!" Randy shouted, slamming a couple into the ground and putting enough speed behind his jump be able to slide under Slimovitz' car between blinks. He peeked out under the license plate in time to watch a green laser slice through the smoke cloud and continue in a b-line for the school. Randy recognized the side of the building.

"Not the cafeteria again!" he moaned. But, at the last second, the beam seemed to ricochet. It shot straight upwards to dissipate in the clouds. The bat-viper turned to the wall where laser changed course and let out more word-screeches. It waved its tentacle cords in the direction of the wall like it was trying to threaten it somehow.

"Okay." Randy rubbed his eyes with his palms. "I am _so_ confused. Is this thing just deranged; why are its eyes glowing; what is _up_ with the floating stuff? This is so beyond normal, and my normal is _whack_."

Whatever the bat-viper thought it saw, it was now chasing it around the yard, shooting beams out of its mouth and slapping its cords around. The Ninja cautiously crawled out from under Slimovitz' car, watching. The cables were hitting thin air, but something was bouncing the green death rays away from the school. Somehow it was able to manage short flights and high jumps that a bat-viper with one wing shouldn't be able to accomplish. "Something's going on here," he said to himself. "What am I missing?"

Scribbles from the Nomicon finally decided to start dropping some hints. Normally the scribbles showed up en mass, usually because whatever it was something obvious to everyone other than Randy, but this scribble was all by itself. A big flashing arrow was following around an empty space. An empty space that the bat-viper had a lock on. Randy followed the space closely with his eyes. He saw it when one of the lasers ricocheted; there was a brief moment just before the laser changed course when something underneath it flickered into view. "Is that?" Randy watched a few more times until he was able to make out what the flicker was. The number of arrows increased with the realization. "There's a person over there!" He said and the arrows disappeared with a pop. "Is he invisible? That is _so bah-RUCE_!"

The Ninja ran back towards the action. "Ninja throwing stars!" he redundantly shouted as he threw. The stars swiped right through several of the cords and the second wing. It had been preparing another laser to shoot, but instead it got a "Ninja punch!" to the lower jaw, knocking its head back and sending another shot into the sky. The laser was still firing when the head came down, and the Ninja leapt in the direction he knew the other figure was, shouting, "Look out!" and knocking them both to the ground. They both rolled across the grass and the laser went passed them, frying several cars along the drop off curb.

Randy propped himself up on his elbows to get a look at the now-visible guy on the pavement to him. He looked to be several years older than Randy. He had clothes similar to that of a teenager - dark t-shirt with a logo and a less than fitting pair of jeans - and a good tan, like he'd spent a good amount of time outside. His hair, though, was snow white and when he turned to look back at Randy, he got a view of glowing, acid green, eyes. They didn't even get a chance to say hello before robotic arms clamped onto their wrists and yanked them off the ground. The bat-viper (that Randy was no longer sure was a bat-viper) held then both at eye level with it and let out a blowing screech. "Lost your voice, Technus?" The other boy mocked, looking the robot in the eye.

_What's a Tech-_

Randy's thoughts were cut off when enough electricity to fry toast shot down his arm. His whole body went rigid and his jaw locked up around a scream. Over the buzz in his ears he heard the boy next to him let out an abbreviated scream of his own. When the electricity stopped, Randy hesitated, trying to catch his breath. Eyes closed, he missed seeing what happened next, but he could hear the clang of skin against metal, a cold cracking, and an enraged mechanical screech. When he opened his eyes, the other boy was still next to him in the air, but the mechanical arm that had been holding him was in pieces on the ground in a pile of ice and bolts. The guy next to him was _flying_.

The guy, feet skimming the air, placed a hand on the arm holding Randy. Randy watched, stunned, as the hand glowed blue and the arm began to freeze over; ice actually beginning to crawl across the metal. Moments later, the clamp around Randy's hand opened and Randy was dropped onto the ground, stumbling slightly when he landed on his gimp ankle.

The bat-viper screeched in protest, but the guy with the white hair lunged through the air and slammed his hands into its face, knocking it to the ground. With his bare hands, he got a grip under the bat's chin and on the neck on the viper and pulled. The head came loose with a loud crack and wires sparked and danced where they were pulled loose. Normally after a few moments, a regular bat-viper head would run out of power before simply shutting off – if Randy didn't take the pleasure to punch its lights out first. But as the head continued to roll around on the ground, the mouth kept clanking and screeching and the eyes kept glowing. The boy with the white hair walked casually over to the head, unhooking some sort of canister from his belt as he walked.

"You just never shut up, do you?" He asked, popping the lid off the can and kneeling next to the head. With a kind of practiced ease, he put the can upside down on the face of the head and pressed a button on the side. A bright light shone from the open end and a high pitched whirring noise started somewhere inside. The bat-viper let out a final screech as the red glow bleed from its eyes and it finally powered down. The boy recapped the no longer glowing canister and stood back on his feet. "Well that was..." Randy said, at a loss for the right word. The other boy turned around when he spoke. "...different."

The boy cracked a grin that didn't quite spread through his eyes. He looked tired, but it didn't spread to his voice when he said, "You're not so bad yourself, Scarf-boy."

Randy was instinctually defensive. "Hey, the scarf is a _useful_ ninja-tool. It-it came with the outfit!"

They guy's smile spread a little farther. "I know the feeling," he said. He held up a friendly hand. "See ya," he said, and he flickered back out of sight. There was a small disturbance in the grass where he had been standing, and he was gone.

* * *

**Thank you guys so much for all the support! Oh my gosh, I had no idea people would even like this you've all got me so excited. :D I hope I can update pretty regularly since it's summer and all, but you never know what could happen.**

**-One**


	3. Chapter 1-3

"He was a total shoob!" Randy complained through a mouth full of french fries. "Stealing my thunder like that."

"Did anyone actually see him steal you thunder?" Howard asked around his milkshake straw. "You said he was invisible, which is totally fantastic, by the way."

Randy agreed, "Most brucest thing I've ever seen."

"And it's not like there were any people left by the time he _was _visible, right?"

Randy stirred his coke angrily with his straw. "Well there was that Vlad Masters guy at first, but by the time the fight was over, he was gone. Everyone else filed out of the way pretty fast."

"See, no thunder stolen," Howard said, stealing some of Randy's fries. "Do you think you could order me a burger?"

"It doesn't matter if none of the people saw me. The point is that that guy, whoever the heck he is, saw me, and then took the robot out like it was nothing. And there was something weird about that robot. Not only was it the first bat-viper that's been out in months, it was like it had some crazy psychic power or something. And then there was that thing the guy used to shut off the head. It kind of looked like a tricked out soup thermos. Are you even listening, Howard?"

"Talk won't get me a burger," Howard said, leaning back in his chair.

There was another collective cheer from the floor of the crowded Game Hole. After the assembly and the bat-viper attack, all school activities, including detention, had been canceled. When Howard and Randy had arrived at the Game Hole together, all the arcade games were open except the DDR machine, which had gathered quite a crowd around it. According to Bucky, some of the kids from Amity Park had already started to arrive and apparently they had some mad gaming skills. Some of the kids had taunted about Randy losing his title as DDR champion, but, in an effort to remain as nonchalant-looking as possible, Randy had waved them off and dragged Howard upstairs to the Food Hole.

From their table, Randy could see the heads of two players behind the crowd around the DDR machine. A boy and a girl, it looked like, both with heads of nondescript black hair. From the bright colors and seizure inducing flashing, the boy was pretty good. Randy wasn't worried, though. He'd held that title since seventh grade, he wasn't about to lose it to some randoms from out of town. Besides, he had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

"Yeah, okay," Randy groaned and leaned over the side of the table to grab his backpack and an extra five dollar bill. "I'll buy you your burger, but you totally owe - aw, crud." As soon as Randy opened his bag, the light almost blinded him. When it dulled to a light his eyes could tolerate, he saw the Nomicon flashing angrily at him. "Sorry Howard," he apologized. "Bathroom, then burger."

Howard just shrugged and slurped his milkshake while Randy jogged to the bathroom. He shut and locked the single stall behind him sat down against the wall. No way was he going to fall on his face in the Game Hole bathroom. With an anxious breath, he braced for impact and opened the book.

Sure enough, getting sucked into the Nomicon felt like falling into a tornado. The whole thing was a whirlwind of trees and dragons and nameless ninjas that had Randy throwing his arms above his head and shouting, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's been a busy day!"

He landed hard on his but in the middle of a paper woodland. Out of nowhere, one of the ninjas smacked him upside the head. When he turned to see said ninja, though, it was gone. On the ground where it was standing, there was writing in the dirt.

Sometimes we must find teamwork in the most solitary of situations.

Randy crossed his arms over his chest. "I am _the Ninja_. _The Ninja_ don't need no partner." He even added a hand flip and head shake for good measure.

In normal circumstances, the Nomicon likes to throw him out without warning. This time, though, Randy would later swear that it paused to scoff at him before he was violently thrown back into the real world. Randy wasn't sure if it was the revolting stank of the bathroom floor - which had, inevitably, found his face - or the loud banging on the door that hit him first, but whatever it was had him jerking to a sitting position.

"Cunningham, get out here!"

Randy hauled himself to his feet and turned to open the door. "Howard?"

Sure enough, Howard was standing on the other side of the door, fist still raised as if to knock again. "Come on, bro, you've gotta see this," he said, taking Randy's arm and leading him down to the game part of the Game Hole. Beside the DDR machine sat the out of order Jack Hammer game. Or it at least _should_ have been out of order, but the play screen behind the out of order sign was flashing and blinking different colors. As they watched, sparks shot out of the back of the machine. At the DDR machine next to them, the cheers of the crowd over the end score of the round drowned out cracking sould of the electricity.

"What's wrong with this thing?" Randy asked.

"I don't know," Howard told him. "I came to check out the DDR match cause you were taking forever and I saw this." Both of them jumped when another burst of sparks burst out.

"You don't think Viceroy's fixed the Jack Hammer bot, do you?"

Howard just shrugged. Before they could get another word in, one of the players from the DDR game walked over and picked a styrofoam cup up off of the Jack Hammer game platform. She obviously wasn't from Norrisville; Randy definitely would have recognized her. She had cropped black hair, deep, dark, shades for her make up, and a goth ensemble that favored spiders. She also looked to be a few years older than Randy and Howard, and had a fairly distracting eyebrow piercing. She nodded a greeting.

"Hey,"she said. "You guys Norrisville High kids?"

"You bet," Howard responded a little quickly. Randy couldn't help but catch his friends eyes on her skirt. "Amity Park?" he asked back.

"Yeah," she said. "Me and my friends arrived this morning. We're starting at your school tomorrow." She held out a hand politely. "I'm Sam."

Randy swatted Howard's hand out of the air and took Sam's. "I'm Randy," he told her. "This is Howard."

"The one and only." Howard puffed out his chest. Randy felt embarrassed for him.

"So," Randy started, fishing for conversation. "They're spreading all the Amity kids into existing classes, right?"

"Mostly, yeah," Sam said, between tugs from her cup. "Caspar High's a pretty small school. I've had the same English teacher since my freshman year."

"That sounds terrible."

She shrugged. "It's not so bad. If you get used to his patterns, all you have to do to get good essay grades is play kiss up." Next to them the Jack Hammer machine let out a burst of broken, shorted, music before falling silent again. The screen behind the sign was flashing blue.

"What's that thing?" Sam asked. **  
**

"A game," Randy answered, earning him a cold "no, duh" look from both Howard and Sam. "But it was only up for about a day a few months ago. Turned out that the thing was controlling a huge robot that was tearing apart the town."

Sam's eyebrows rose and her eyes widened; Randy found her eyebrow piercing to be slightly distracting. "Is random civil destruction normal here?" she asked.**  
**

Randy had never really thought about it before. He and Howard had both grown up in Norrisville: where teens turned into monsters and destroyed things, and a mysterious, several hundred year old ninja cured them. It all felt pretty normal to them, but, in retrospect, it was probably far beyond normal for these Amity kids. Oh well, they'd just have to get used to it for a while. _I'm sure they'll catch on fast_, he thought.

"More or less," he told her, shrugging.**  
**

"Most of it wasn't in a very heavily populated area, anyway," Howard added. "Well, the school area was, but they built that thing back up in a weekend." **  
**

Sam stopped digging through the ice in her cup with her straw to say, "Impressive."

"The local construction company has a lot of practice." Howard added a knowing look in Randy's direction. Yes, ninja-related destruction was up quite a bit in the last year and he should probably be doing something about that; but Randy doubted any of the past ninjas had the added bonus of robot-funding gazillionaires on their backs, too. He dismissed it with a roll of his eyes.

"Anyway," he continued, "they can't use the game anymore because the robot was destroyed, but they keep it here to fill up space; and, let's face it, that thing looks pretty bruce." Howard nodded his agreement. "Also, Howard begged for them to leave it he could keep his one spot on the Hole of Fame."

"So worth it." **  
**

"'Bruce'?" Sam asked.

"Just roll with it."

"Alright." Sam lifted one shoulder acceptingly. "But if it's not supposed to be running," she said, pointing at the fritzing machine, "what is it doing?"

"I'm..." Randy shuffled a hand over his hair. "I'm not sure."

"Hey, Sam!" One of the boys on the DDR machine, called through the crowd. They had started another game, and his eyes were still glued to the screen, feet moving furiously. His opponent, on the other hand, wasn't so much as dancing, as he was making the awkward flinching and stomping motions of a baby giraffe, only shorter. "Come take this from me!" he called again.

Howard raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Mid-game?" **  
**

That didn't deter Sam though, because she called back, "I'm on it!" before shoving her cup into Randy's hands and working back through the crowd.

xxxxxx

"I don't know, Cunningham," Howard nudged him with an elbow. "With those skills, these guys might beat you yet."

"Still not worried," Randy intoned. "What I _am _worried about," he turned back to the Jack Hammer game, "is this."

"So it's lighting up and stuff, that's not such a big deal," Howard tried to tell him. "I'm sure it's just short circuiting, or something. Probably does it all the time while we're not looking."

Randy shrugged. "Yeah, probably."

"So...we getting me that burger, or what?"

Distractedly, Randy pulled a five out of the side pocket of his backpack and handed it to Howard. "Go nuts," he told him.

"Sweet, thanks bro," Howard said before jogging to the food counter, but Randy wasn't really listening. The screen had taken to scrolling white text down the blue screen as Randy worked his way around the the back. Crouching down, he reached towards the power cable half sticking out of the dark shadows behind the machines. He flinched when sparks flew from the end and jerked the cable. When he finally got the cable in his hands, he pulled it into the light, all the way to the end of the cord.

The thing wasn't even plugged in.

A few moments later, Howard reappeared at the front of the machine. "Hey bro, what are you doing?" he asked past a mouth full of hamburger. Randy wordlessly showed him the unplugged cord. Howard swallowed his burger nervously. "I'm sure it's just...a freak power surge, or something. Is that a thing that happens? I'm pretty sure that's a thing that happens."

Randy dropped the cord and stood up. "I think I should go check out the hole where we left the actual robot later," he said. "Y'know...just to be safe."

Howard looked at his watch. "Well if you do, you're going to want to leave now if you want to make it back before the sun goes down. But I'm sure it'll be fine until tomorrow...why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because whenever one of us says that, is turns out to be something that _can't _wait until tomorrow." Randy hefted his bag on his shoulder. "I'm going to go check. You coming?"

"No way, man-I mean, I'll stay here and call if someone beats your score. Maybe sabotage a little. But only because you're my _best friend_."

"I'm not worried about my score, Howard," he called over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow."

"See ya!"

Just before the door shut behind him on the street, Randy caught a glimpse of his best friend approaching the Future Time Radioactive Zombie Punch machine.

* * *

**So this took me a lot longer than necessary and I'm reeeaaaaally sorry and stuff and...yeah. I was going to add the next scene onto this, but then I realized just how long that's going to be and how long this already was. I'm trying to keep everything around the same length, just to monitor my own sanity, if nothing else. **

**Also, I didn't want to go into horrible detail with how Sam has upgraded her image over the years, but if felt at least one facial piecing was necessary. I leave the rest to your imagination.**

**Holy crap, there are so many people following this. I can't even describe how happy and inspiring this is for me. I promise to do my best!**

**-One**


	4. Chapter 1-4

The big hole in the ground that was home to the remaining parts of the Jack Hammer robot was just on the outside of town. After the incident, the cops assumed that whoever built the robot would come back for it eventually, so they blocked off the area in hopes of catching them. Naturally, McFist hadn't touched it since.

The sun was just beginning to dye the sky orange by the time Randy arrived on his bike, which he had picked up from his house on the way over. He had never really bothered to come back after the incident, since he usually left all the post-robot attack stuff to the cops and other people who had money that didn't come from their parents.

He left his bike partially hidden behind a tree before walking out to the edge of what he was pretty sure used to be a rock quarry. The police car sitting a few yards away was empty, as per usual, and avoiding the dash cam could barely be called a challenge. The quarry was at least seven stories deep and the place where the robot had landed was hidden in the wall's shadow. If he wanted to check on it, he'd have to ninja his way to the bottom.

Changing into the Ninja suit only took a moment, wrapping the scarf around a tree took another, and a deep breath later, the Ninja was jumping into a shadowy hole. There was the brief feeling of falling, but halfway down, something slammed into him hard, moving in the other direction. The wind was out of him before he even hit the grass again at a roll.

He unsteadily moved up onto his elbows, coughing and hacking, trying to get the breath back into his lungs. He was surprised to hear something similar a few feet away. He looked up when he heard a groan that didn't come from himself. After one glance he was absolutely certain it was the same guy from outside the school only hours ago. Same white hair and glowing green eyes. This time, though he was wearing some sort of black and white jumpsuit with a logo across the chest. He had landed on his back and painfully rolled onto his knees before looking up back at Randy.

"You!" they both said, pointing fingers at each other.

"You're the Ninja, right?"

"Obviously." Randy pulled himself to his feet and picked the most heroic looking pose possible. "Who are you?"

"Uhm..." his eyes darted around the open space as he (floated?) to his own feet. "Danny?"

"Danny...? No offense dude, but that name isn't exactly..." he searched for the word, "heroic." Danny just blinked at him. "That _is_ what you're going for right? I mean, I just assumed. With the jumpsuit and all."

Before Danny could answer, something large and glowing shot out of the quarry. It cast an eerie light over the grass, tinting the world green. Chunks of broken and rusted metal were twisting themselves together, somewhat haphazardly. It took a moment for Randy to recognize it as the Jack Hammer head. The holes where the eye's used to be were glowing red. Several parts fell off when the mouth opened.

"_I am Technus!_" it scratched out in some sort of whiny, overconfident, voice. "_Master of all things Technology and electronic gizmos! Fear my mechanical might, which I shall now express in robotic scrap parts!_"

Randy couldn't help but just stand and stare for several long moments, squinting up at it. "I don't know whether to laugh or be second hand embarrassed," he stated.

Danny laughed.

Randy was mid-thought about how this 'Technus'' squeaky voice was marginally non-threatening, when it said, "_Your witty new side-kick will not save you this time, Phantom!_"

"'Phantom?'" He turned to Danny, who had just muttered what Randy assumed was a swear under his breath. "Is that you?" Danny nodded reluctantly. "Well that's that's so much better than 'Danny'! See now I'm feeling the hero mutual respec- wait did it just call me _side-kick_?"

"_I, Technus, will not tolerate being addressed as 'it' by the side-kick!_" it proclaimed loudly. More mechanical parts had been rising out of the quarry and now began to spin, rather menacingly.

The Ninja pulled his sword from the suit and picked an equally menacing stance. "I'll show you side-kick," he grumbled, and surged forward. Just in time, too, because the spinning robot parts started flying toward him only to taste ninja sword. Some parts that came at him, though, seemed to just spontaneously explode green before they could hit him. No time to question it though, because soon enough he was in the air above the head and bringing his blade down to slice it clean in half.

The Ninja landed smoothly on his feet in the grass while the split parts fell back into the pit behind him. He shouldered his sword and looked back to Phantom, whose hands were glowing an ominous green. He chalked it up to whatever hero-schtick the guy was going for - maybe that's that's what was exploding before. How many freaky powers did this guy have? He didn't seem to be monster-stanked, but then...

Ignoring it for now, he gave his best smile through his mask and said, "Well that was easy."

Phantom didn't look so sure, though, because he walked up next to the Ninja and peered down into the quarry. Up close, he was at least an inch shorter than Randy, but then Randy was pretty tall for his age._ Has he always been glowing?_

After a moment of silence, "Did you hear it hit the bottom?"

They shared a worried look before jumping back, away from the edge, just in time to dodge the giant metallic fingers that grabbed a hold of the ledge. Rocks and dirt crumbled under the pressure as the massive robot attached to the fingers heaved itself to the surface. The Ninja and Phantom backed up step by step as a mutated and mutilated Jack Hammer robot stood to its feet. The head had somehow sown itself back together with misplaced cables creating a stitch pattern down the middle of the face, and more of them were still moving and connecting to different places. It was missing numerous pieces, but Technus had creatively replaced them with other parts. Where one arm was lost, the jackhammer had taken the place of its hand. Both eyes were also still missing, and though the eyes were glowing red, the face plates had taken on a green color. It took several moments to admire its new hand(s?), like a teenage girl looking at her nails.

"This doesn't doesn't make any sense," Randy caught Phantom saying. "I caught this guy earlier today. He's still in the thermos!"

_Oh_, Randy thought, catching sight of the thermos on Phantom's belt and recognizing it as Phantom placed a thoughtful hand on it. _So it actually is a thermos_.

Before he could ask, though, Technus spoke up again. "Yes!" he praised himself. "With such a piece of intricate machinery, we shall finally conquer the world!"

"We?"

Randy did not like the concern of Phantom's face. "Does he not normally have a 'we'?"

"I didn't think he knew the word existed," Phantom answered.

The jackhammer hand started up with an unsettling growl. "_Yes,_" Techus said. "_I can most definitely work with this._" All it took was lowering the jackhammer-hand to the ground, and rock and debris were sent flying straight towards them. Randy didn't know who was following who's lead, but soon both Phantom and the Ninja were ducked with their backs to the trees, avoiding flying rocks the size of Howard.

Randy took the opportunity to take a deep breath, turn to Phantom's adjacent tree-cover, and say: "Okay, I'm not normally one for talking mid-combat-" Phantom gave him a disbelieving look "-but what is going on! The robot won't die, it's eyes are glowing, and I still have no idea what the heck _you_ are!"

"Okay," Phantom rubbed a hand over his face and his eyes wandered a little, like he was looking for the words. Eventually he looked back at the Ninja and asked, "Do you believe in ghosts?"

Randy's eyebrows furrowed. "Should I?"

"Ye- well..." he trailed a little, swinging his head. "We're not exactly conventional spirits as much as super-powered creatures from another dimension that may or may not happen to resemble the dead."

Randy blinked. "...what?"

They were cut by a loud crack where a particularly large boulder slammed into Phantom's tree. The top teetered dangerously and a split across the trunk was dropping the top half of the tree right towards them. A quick glance around his own tree, Randy saw the Technus-Hammer bot taking scarily-speedy, pounding, steps towards them.

"Run!" Phantom shouted before leaping off the ground and flying away, through the trees. Randy didn't need to be told twice. He jumped just before the trunk hit the ground and started his own way through the tree-tops, leaping from branch to branch and keeping pace with Phantom's flight.

"What," Randy called to him, "you're not even going to try and fight it?"

"I don't see you making any moves either," he shot back. Was he flying right _through_ the trees?

Randy shrugged off the topic in the air between two tree branches. "Okay, okay, I can be open minded about this," he reasoned. "Interdenominational dead people. You one of them-their kind, I mean? Casper the friendly superhero?" Phantom nodded. "That's cool. So, what, this the Ghost of Robots Past?"

"Something like that."

"But then..." Randy thought back to the bat-viper in the school yard. If that one had been - Randy hesitated to think - _possessed_ just like the Jack Hammer robot, it would explain why Phantom was there. Assuming he'd made a habit of fighting his fellow ghosts. Something wasn't sitting right though. "What was the thing earlier today? You said that guy was Technus then, too, right? And you caught _him_ in your soup can. Can ghosts have twins?"

"No, I don't-" Phantom's brow furrowed as a troubling thought seemed to dawn to him. "But they can have clones."

"Oh, I feel _so_ much better about this whole thing."

The sound of crashing trees drew both of their attentions behind them, where an immense robot could be seen effortlessly kicking over trees on it's leisurely way towards them. The grin on its face was less than a comfort. So was the motion of it taking the hammer off its back, pulling back an arm, and hurling it towards them.

If Phantom swore, Randy couldn't hear it over his own choice words. All of a sudden he was being grabbed under the arms and hauled forward at frightening speeds. A sort of tingling feeling covered him as Phantom sped them away. Randy tried to close his eyes and try not to wonder how they weren't hitting anything. In what felt like moments, Phantom had them landing behind a hill int he woods, under a small overhang of rock.

Between tired breaths, Phantom swallowed and said, "Okay, new plan."

Randy was still making sure everything was attached after one of the most terrifying flights of his life when he added, "We had an old plan?"

"No but that doesn't make this one any less new." He chanced a glance over the top of the hill. Randy didn't know how far away they had gotten, but he hoped it was far enough to give them at least a fighting chance of escaping if they had to. Randy wanted nothing more than to charge at that thing like he did everything else, but he'd gone through similar processes enough times - namely with living potatoes - that he knew things that could bring themselves back to life, would bring themselves back to life, no matter how many times you cut them in half. "This robot was in pieces at the bottom of a cliff," Phantom said, "so you must have fought it before, right?"

"Yeah, a few months ago," Randy answered._ No harm in honesty_. "But the controls were too delicate for anyone who didn't have the practiced reflexes of a regular arcade gamer, and I knew the kid they tricked into operating it. It was practically cheating, really; it swan dived off that cliff for us, and I didn't have to touch it. And who knows what the-what the ghost did to it to get it like this."

"Wait," Phantom brought his head back down and looked at him, "you said it has some kind of control? Is it remote?"

"Yeah, its..." Randy debated how embarrassing it was to admit before saying, "it's one of the arcade games, actually."

Phantom gave him a look of scornful recognition. "You mean that trashy looking Jack Hammer game by the DDR?"

"Yeah, that- hey! That thing is the cheese-looking!" Randy stopped himself before could go on about it when he hit a second realization that he should have had first. He pointed a finger at Phantom. "You've been to the Game Hole?"

Randy didn't know ghosts could go pale. "Uhm."

"_There you are!_"

The Ninja and Phantom both looked up, startled, to see the Technus-Hammer _floating _above them. He had moved to block the setting sun, casting them both in his shadow as he lifted his arm and brought the hammer down.

* * *

**I done did a cliff hanger :B**

**I would also like to say that I am a rainbow of sorry that this took so long but I'm also happy to say that I spend 80% of that 10 day vacation in NYC and am now hecks of inspired. I will honestly be surprised with myself if the next chapter isn't up by the end of the week, and if it's not, know that a reliable source will be giving me a wedgie for it so you don't have to. But I will have brought it upon myself, so s'all good. Mostly.**

**Anyway, thanks for all the continuing support, you guys melt my little heart. :3**

**-One**


	5. Chapter 1-5

Randy was finding he had a serious disadvantage in surprise situations. He could never decide if he wanted to jump, roll, or mysteriously smoke bomb out of the way. This is where Phantom had an advantage, because apparently that thing about magically flying around the trees was actually a thing about flying _through_ the trees. Randy discovered this when Phantom grabbed his arm and suddenly they were sinking through the ground, clear of Jack Hammer's hammer.

When they stopped moving and Randy felt solid again, all he could see was what was cast under the glow of...Phantom's skin. _Wow, he really is glowing. _They were both crouching under a low dirt ceiling and surrounded by packed dirt walls. To Randy's left, the walls disappeared into a black hole that Randy assumed was a tunnel.

"What the heck is this?" he asked.

"Fox hole, I think," Phantom answered, rather matter-o-factly.

"Did we just– did we just go through the ground?"

"Yes. Yes we did. Now listen, I think I have a plan."

"I think I'd love to hear it."

"Can you get in contact with the kid you said was controlling the robot before?"

Randy pulled his phone out from the sash around his waist. (Or was it a belt? He wasn't sure.) He flipped to his meager contact list and found Howard's name. The little picture in the corner showed no bars. "Yeah, sure, when we're not in a fox hole."

"I can get us out again," he said in passing. "How fast can he get to the Game Hole?"

"Knowing him, he's probably already there. What do we need him for?"

"I'm friends with some of the Amity Park kids," he explained. "I know one of them that was there today who may be able to get the control machine re-connected to the actual robot."

Randy almost slapped himself in the face. _Of course! This guy showing up at the same time as the Amity Park people couldn't be just a coincidence. Maybe he's his own local hero, or something. If he is, I can't blame him for having friends. No matter what the Nomicon says, I would be totally lost without Howard._

Trying to make an equal effort to stick to practical conversation, he asked, "Can we really take control from a malicious entity of the possibly-dead?"

"Probably not. But we may be able to take enough control to frustrate him – he gets that way pretty easily lately. If he doesn't think it will work the way he wants it to, he'll jump ship and we'll have ourselves a fairer fight. Well..." he smiled, a little devilishly, "fairer for us, anyway."

* * *

Howard was, indeed, still at the Game Hole. While he would much rather be chilling out at Randy's house, Randy was off being a Ninja and being with Randy was a crucial step to entering the Cunningham household after the 'Prank War Incident' in seventh grade. He was, however, still proud that the color of the bathroom walls had not actually been changed.

Apparently DDR was no more fun after that other kid left, but the Sam girl had moved onto other games and dragged a lot of the crowd around with her. She was _good, _too. Could probably beat Randy's scores if she was actually trying. She played every game with one free hand and one hand mostly occupied by a cup that she repeatedly paid off a kid to refill for her.

Howard was standing not too far away when his phone rang. Well aware that there was only one person who would ever have any real intention to call him, he answered, "This is your bro, bro."

Sure enough, Randy's voice came through the other line. "Howard! Listen, I need you to do me a favor."

"When do you not?" Howard was almost fazed at the realization that the explosion in the background was unfazing, but just trying to think through that thought was giving him a headache so he let it go.

Randy took the response in stride. "The Jack Hammer robot has come back to life on its own and we need you to control it again with the arcade game."

"'We?'"

"Me and the guy from earlier today."

Howard angrily stared at the opposite wall. "The total shoob–thunder stealer from outside the school?"

There was some static on the other line but Howard heard Randy answer, "Yeah, that guy."

"Why would you want to work with him?"

"Situational necessity." There was another explosion and a shout in the background. Howard didn't like the sound of it – working with the mystery guy, not the explosion; the explosion sounded pretty legit – but he went along anyway. "You're still at the Game Hole, right?"

"Where else would I go?" Howard scoffed. "Home? What do you need?"

"Okay, first you've got to find some guy named Tucker."

"What for?"

"He can get the machine working again. He's one of the, uh, guy's friends."

_Okaaaaay..._ Howard felt his protective best bro instincts twitch. "What's this 'guy' called, anyway?"

"His name is, uh..." There was a pause on the other line and a slew of white noise, like Randy had moved the phone away from his face. When the noise stopped Randy's voice startled out, "Jazz!...per...?"

Howard laughed. "Jasper? What kind of name is Jasper? Sounds like something a single woman would name their cat."

"That's not really important right now." _Randy. Every the joy-killer._ "Just find Tucker."

Howard started scanning the varied population of the Game Hole. "Do I get a description?"

"Yeah, uh, Jasper says to look for the guy in the ugly yellow shirt, he's a bit of a hipster, and he's probably hitting on a girl."

Sure enough, not far from Sam's latest game, was an african american guy in hipster glasses and a most atrocious yellow shirt leaning against the wall and attempting – valiantly but fruitlessly – to hit on who Howard recognized as one of the seniors from Norrisville High. The girl was rolling her eyes and her mouth was twitching into a smile that was, more likely that not, unrelated to whatever joke he might have told.

"I think I just found him."

When Howard approached, he quickly caught the guy's attention, and the girl used that free fraction of a second as a cue to leave. Which was fine enough for Howard. She was hot, but freshman going for seniors was a dream for shoobish children and Randy told him it was kind of creepy. Howard usually just trusted Randy on those things. His bro had a feel for things that they both suspected Howard had blocked out in return for the hyper-awareness of the presence of food. They had agreed it to be a fair trade.

"Hey, are you Tucker?" Howard asked.

"The one and only." Howard imagined that if he was wearing a collar, he would have popped it. "Who's askin'?"

Howard held up his phone and pointed at it with his other hand. "Apparently our friends need us."

Tucker's brows furrowed suspiciously. "Which friend?"

"Some guy named Jasper?"

Tucker's mouth pulled confusedly, but not without recognition. "Let me see that," he said, snatching the phone away. He put it to his ear. "Hello? Who is this?" There were several beats of silence where Howard imagined the other phone changing hands, because Tucker's face soon brightened and he responded, "Oh, hey man! ... Yeah, I can probably do that ... Yeah, I'll call when I've got it set up – you got your phone on you? Sweet, good luck." He swiftly hung up and tossed the phone back to Howard, who caught it against his chest. "Looks like our friends need us. What's your name again?"

* * *

"They're on it." Phantom clapped Randy's phone shut and slapped it into his hand. "Now we just need to keep Technus from either killing us, or getting to the town."

"Well that sounds..." Randy swallowed. "Unbelievably difficult."

"Don't be so negative," he gave Randy a slap on the back. "I'll distract, you chop off a limb or two."

Randy rolled his eyes "Oh, well when you put it _that_ way."

Phantom jumped into the air and around the tree that had become their new temporary hiding place once the Technus-Hammer robot collapsed the old one with it's jackhammer. They'd stopped behind the tree just long enough for Phantom to talk to Tucker before the jackhammer started doubling as a tree-cutter. By the time they all had fallen, there was a small clearing littered with tree stumps. In the air above it, Phantom was shooting a green beam out of his hands, right into the back of the robot's head. The metal was starting to steam from the energy, but the Technus-Hammer bot itself looked practically unfazed.

Randy watched from the ground as it swung around, slamming its jackhammer arm right into Phantom, sending him flying into the ground. Acting fast now that the robot was facing the other direction, the Ninja leaped up and landed on a metal shoulder. But, just as he was reaching back to swing his sword and chop off the head, the hand with fingers got a grip on his scarf and gave Randy his own turn of flying into the dirt. All the breath left his lungs on impact, but he still took a brief moment to be glad that he landed on tree roots instead of the broken trunk itself.

As Randy hauled himself to his knees, pulling in air, he got a good view of Phantom flying up behind the Technus-Hammer bot and aiming a solid foot on the back of the neck. He shouted, "Watch out!" as the full body of the robot swung with the momentum, sending the jackhammer flying towards Randy's face. Just in time, the Ninja lifted his sword and brought it down in front of him with expert timing Randy would never expect from himself normally. The blade sliced clean through the robot arm and the jackhammer and body both hit the ground behind him separately.

Just as quickly, though, Technus pulled the robot back into the air. The Ninja could see himself taking down a normal Jack Hammer with the help of Danny Phantom, but they had only been actually fighting the undying super robot for two minutes, tops, and Randy was already sick of it. And not just because the whole 'ghost' thing was still getting to him. He just really hoped that whatever Tucker and Howard would do, they would to it fast.

Frayed cables had already gotten themselves half way to reconnect the missing limb when, all of a sudden, something in the machinery let out a protestant squeal. Randy covered his ears as he watched Jack Hammer's limbs twitch and the glowing lights flicker. "_What– what is this?_" Technus shouted. After that, his fingers pulled themselves into a fist and he actually began punching himself in the face.

Randy smiled under his mask, reminding himself to buy Howard another burger later. _They did it!_

"_Aurgh! Piece of trash!_" Technus raged, holding back his own fist with the stump of his other arm.

"Well you did find it in a hole in the ground," Randy felt compelled to point out.

Technus made a noise somewhat akin to a robotic snarl, just before there was a flash of radioactive light. Randy covered his eyes, and when the light dimmed he lowered his arms. The mutilated Jack Hammer fell to the ground with a crash – now normally colored, if badly singed – and just above that, was what Randy assumed was the real form of Technus.

Randy glanced over the cape, the glasses, and the semi-transparency before he almost busted something from laughing. "Is that a _mullet_?"

"What?" Technus raged in a voice even less threatening (if possible) than before. "My hair is as _hip _and _fresh _as your pretty-boy scarf!"

Randy felt his temper rise at the mention of his scarf. "Oh, now you're dissing the scarf, too?"

"Oh, no," Phantom floated down to the ground next to Randy, "he's totally serious."

"Really? That's..." Randy scratched his head. "So was that a compliment?"

Instead of answering, Phantom shot off the ground, placed himself behind Technus, and delivered a round-house kick to Technus' shoulder blades, sending him flying in Randy's direction.

Randy held up a fist to throw in his own punch, but when Technus came in range and Randy swung, he stumbled forward. It was the weirdest feeling; a lot like when Phantom had pulled him through the ground or the trees, only a lot faster. Technus went right through him.

Technus landed a good twenty feet behind him, making a rut in the dirt in his wake. Utterly confused, Randy walked up to where he lay, apparently unconscious, on the ground, head pushed up against a tree stump. When he took a step onto his cape, he only felt the dirt under his feet. Fascinated, Randy waved a hand at Technus' face and watched it sift right through it. _I can't even touch him!_

While Randy was distracted, Phantom had come up next to him and clicked the switch on the thermos. After a flashing light and a kind of sucking noise, Technus was gone. Phantom put the cap back on the Thermos, effectively trapping him. "And that makes two."

* * *

**Yeah, okay so when I say I'm going to get something done in a certain amount of time, its probably safe to add three days to that and expect it then. But the next chapter is practically half written already, so you can expect that soon...ish. **

**-One**


	6. Chapter 1-6

"So they disassembled the game again, they're all going home for the night, and Tucker says sorry for not calling you first. Apparently Howard jumped right into the action before he could do anything."

Phantom shrugged from where he stood on the ground, inspecting the empty head of Jack Hammer. "It's not that big of a deal. Stuff happens all the time."

"So..." Randy dragged out the conversation starter, tapping his hands with is phone. "How long have you been, y'know, superhero-ing?"

Phantom looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Superhero-ing?"

"Cut me some slack, man, I've never talked to another..." Was Randy really a superhero? He had the super part down, but it felt snobby to be calling himself a hero, so he said, "...justice-inclined individual, before."

Phantom gave him an unconvinced look. "So you're saying you've never met a good person before?"

"No, I mean-" Randy stopped for the smug grin that was creeping onto Phantom's face. "Oh, haha, yeah, let's all laugh. You're very funny. But seriously, it's not everyday we come across those who can shoot fire from their hands and don't snap on hard impact."

Phantom shrugged, agreeingly. "Yeah, I guess we are pretty hard to come by."

There was a moment of silence where they both fought for something to say before Randy said, "So now what?"

Phantom gently lifted his toes off the ground. "I suggest we leave these here, in the middle of the woods where hopefully no one will find them, and pretend this never happened." With that he pushed further off the ground and turned to leave.

That was...not the answer Randy was expecting. Was he just going to run away again? Randy squared his determination as he watched Phantom start to fly off in the direction they'd come. _Not this time._ "Hey!" he called, and followed him back into the tree tops. "I did what you asked and didn't tell Howard who you are," he tried to reason, "but do _I_ get anything more than a name?" That was only fair, right? Phantom must have gotten information about the Ninja from somewhere in town. How was it fair that the Ninja didn't get to know anything about Phantom?

"Not likely," Phantom called back.

Randy stopped on a branch and huffed indignantly. "_Danny Phantom_, huh?" he called after him, pulling out his cell phone and opening a browser page. "On a scale of one to Kardashian, how hard do you think you are to Google?"

Phantom slowed to a stop and Randy congratulated himself. He saw his shoulders rise and fall before he turned around and lowered himself onto an adjacent tree branch. "Okay." He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "You know about the Amity Park residents coming to stay here, right?" Randy nodded but stayed silent to let him continue. "Amity Park was evacuated because of a _ghost_ infestation. It took four years to get the governments actual attention on the problem, and now they've kicked out the entire town. If word gets out that ghosts have started coming here, Norrisville could be next."

"An infestation of ghosts?" Phantom's turn to nod. "How many ghosts have to be in one place to elevate from 'haunted' to 'infested?'" Phantom opened his mouth to say something but Randy held up his hands. "You know what, don't actually answer that. I'm still getting over the whole dead people thing. What is it these ghosts do, anyway? You don't seem like such a bad guy."

"Well I'm not all ghosts," he admitted. "Most ghosts are like Technus: bent on some sort of goal that almost always involves pushing humans out of the way for their own ambitions." He pulled the thermos off his belt. "That's what this is for. There's a portal back home that I use to send them back to their own dimension."

Randy added 'A Dimension for the Dead' to his list of things to be skeptical about. Right between 'ghosts' and 'the merit to being an A student.' "How do they get out in the first place?"

"Well natural portals pop up every now and again, but there's also man made portals in-" Phantom stopped himself and put and hand to his head, "why am I telling you all of this?"

"Because for a superhero I have a sort of goofy youth-ness about me and you find it endearing?" Randy ventured. Phantom gave him a skeptical look. "Not unlike Spiderman?"

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Yeah, alright. You coming?"

"Coming?" Randy blinked. "Coming where?"

"Did you think I was poking around in that hole for the heck of it?"

Randy ran a hand over the back of his head. "I didn't really think about it, actually. I was too busy following your lead on _running from the possessed zombie destructo-robot_."

"Good choice," he commended. "But Norrisville is your hero-ing territory, from what I hear. You have a right to at least know what's going on here."

The thought hadn't actually occurred to Randy, but he crossed his arms over his chest anyway and bluffed, "That's exactly what I was thinking." _My territory?_ he thought. _That sounds rather commanding. _He held out a hand. "Lead the way, Danny. Can I call you Danny?"

Phantom - Danny, blinked at him. "Uh, sure. I mean, I usually go by Phantom, but..." He seemed strangely awkward at the concept of someone using his first name. Randy found that a little sad. "I guess." He pointed down the trees. "We going?"

"Absolutely." Randy hop-flipped and landed on the branch next to Danny. "Lead the way."

* * *

Stars were poking out of the night when they returned to where they'd started. They made quick time descending the stone wall and reaching the bottom. The landscape was packed down and man made slopes climbed the back wall. Piles of forgotten dirt and stone littered the floor. The edges and corners were all shielded by shadow where the moonlight couldn't reach. As Danny inspected one of the piles the Jack Hammer robot had initially landed on when they'd dropped the thing months ago, Randy took particular notice of the glow he gave off, scattering the thick shadows where small, mechanical pieces lay forgotten, simply with his presence. His whole general person was rather surreal. Randy chalked it up to the glowing; other than that and the freaky powers, he seemed like a regular teenager. Almost enough to make a person suspicious.

Randy watched Danny light his hand green – probably to add more light to the crater in the dirt pile he was hovering next to – while he bounced questions around in his mind. His sense of immediate curiosity wanted to ask what it was Danny thought he was looking for, and he still had a million bubbling questions about the whole ghost thing, but he'd been putting off another question for a while, so he went for it.

"How did you know to come here, anyway?"

Danny landed silently on the ground, brushing the dust off some piece of metal he'd found while he spoke. "I have a certain...sense about where other ghosts are. It used to be really vague, but I guess it's been improving over the years. And this place was going off like a metal detector over a bin of recycled cans." Apparently the metal was useless, because he tossed it aside, carelessly.

"How many years is that," Randy inquired further, "approximately?"

Danny gave him a skeptical look over his shoulder. "You sound jealous."

Randy laughed a litter harder than necessary. "_Jealous? _Haha. Yeah, sure. Jealous of what?"

"Maybe you feel threatened on a level of experience."

"I'm an eight hundred year old ninja," he bounced it off immediately, placing a boastful hand on his chest. "I think that's a little hard to beat."

"Maybe. But I'm a ghost. Who _knows_ how long I've been dead for."

Randy found that statement to have in irritating level of taunting, but also very hard to argue with. Now the only option to get the answer he wanted was to ask how long he had been dead for. Which was directly connected to asking how he had died, which would be the single stupidest thing to ask a ghost ever. It's, like, Ghost Etiquette 101 or something.

On the other hand, _was_ Randy jealous of this guy? He fully understood the feeling of not wanting to be upstaged and have precious thunder stolen, but was that the same thing as jealousy?

"Hey, Ninja!" Randy snapped out of his thoughts at Danny's call. While Randy was thinking, he'd disappeared somewhere behind one of the other dirt piles. "Do you have a flashlight or something in that magic suit of yours? I need a light that sits still."

"Sure!" Randy called back, but as he was going for his Glow Balls, one of them slipped out of his hand. When it hit the ground, it started rolling back toward the shadowed wall. "Crud," Randy mumbled, hoping no one saw that, and ran after it.

The ball continued to roll further and further through the shadows until it hit something that made a kind of clanging sound that echoed off the walls of the quarry. Randy quickly bent over and picked it up, preparing to run back to find Danny, but when he looked up he stopped cold.

"Hey, uh, Danny!" He called without turning his gaze away. "You're ganna want to see this!"

Expanding back into the wall face was some kind of wide, open tunnel. Along the inner walls were large, metal containers of some kind, sort of like pods in movies that the aliens would keep the captured humans in; the kind that would make little clouds of dramatic steam as they opened. They were all connected along huge power lines and hooked up to some kind of console at the front of the row. Each was in a various state of disrepair, ranging from broken hinges to a pile of molten metal on the ground. The entire thing was hidden just-so behind a cleft in the rock face that the dim safety lights along the floor and ceiling wouldn't be visible from the outside.

"What are those things?" he asked.

Randy saw Danny's glow approach in his peripheral vision. "They look like...cloning pods."

Randy turned to look at his face. "You're telling me you have enough experience with cloning pods to actually recognize them?"

"Sadly, yes," he answered, shrugging to one side. He stepped forward to the console and started tapping at different buttons until the screen flickered to life. His hands swiped and tapped in commands to the touch screen, his search becoming more lively than it had been before. When he arrived at the screen he wanted, his eyes skimmed back and forth over the data. "It looks like they're all set to support the same ectoplasmic signature."

Randy blinked. "Ecto-pla-whaty-what?"

"Ectoplasimic signiture," Danny repeated. "It's kind of like...DNA; for ghosts."

"Okay, still being open-minded," Randy reminded himself as he stepped up by Danny's shoulder to look watch him work at the screen. Danny tapped away at a few more settings until he came across a picture of who Randy now recognized as Technus. He looked up and down the rows of pods again. "So you're telling me that there are over a dozen tech-ghosts floating around a town that is regularly assaulted by robots?"

Danny looked up at him, startled. "_Regularly?_"

Randy gestured towards himself. "Why do you think I'm here? Publicity?"

"Where do they come from?"

"The local billionaire, actually. He has some sort of thing against me." Randy shrugged it off as unimportant and walked a few paces down the rows, holding up his Glow Balls for extra light. The small light cast eerie shadows across the rough stone walls. Randy half expected one of these ghost things to jump out of one of them at any moment. But if one of them was hiding here, he trusted that Danny's sense thing would tell them. Turning back to Danny, he asked, "So what do we do now? If these guys are getting around Norrisville as we speak..."

"Ghosts don't always attack the minute they enter the human world," Danny placated. "And if these guys are fresh out of the cloning pod, who knows what kind of shape they're in. For all we know they're just floating blobs of ectoplasm with mullets."

"Who would want to clone evil ghosts?" Randy wondered aloud. "Better question, who would be able to?"

Danny's frustrated sigh was silent, but Randy caught his nostrils flaring. "I know a guy," he said. "You're not the only one with an enemy who's forgotten what a anything below a hundred dollar bill looks like."

"Okay." Randy stepped back towards the front of the tunnel again. It wasn't that they couldn't make out the back wall, but something about the whole place was sending unnatural shivers up his spine. "So we can use your soup-can thing to catch all the ghosts, right?"

"It's a _thermos_," Danny corrected, placing a protective hand to where it was clipped to his belt. "And you can leave them to me. Ghosts are my problem and I shouldn't have let them get here in the first place. It's my responsibility. Besides, if your life is anything like mine, you shouldn't have the free time for something like this."

"What? No I have loads of-" _If I say I have tons of free time, it makes me look bad. No way this guy beats more baddies on a regular basis than I do, too. _"-of bad guys to bust. Yeah, lots of monsters and robots that need my Ninja self."

Danny's eye widened. "Monsters?"

Randy sighed loudly. "We're a complicated town."

"I think I'm gathering that."

"But I've got free time to spare," he insisted, "for a colleague in, you know, justice. And what happened to the whole 'my territory' business?"

"I said that gives you the right to know what's going on, not to have to take part in it." Danny pressed a button on the console at watched the lights click off. "Tell you what," he reasoned, putting his hands on his hips. "Prove to me you have the free time for it. If you can find me again – without another ghost showing up and forcing me out – then you can help all you want and I won't complain. If you can't...well, we'll see."

"We'll see? What's that supposed to-" but between blinks, Danny Phantom had vanished. Randy threw his arms, exasperated. "Okay, is this going to be a regular thing?" He called to the open air. "Because I don't think I like it!"

Randy could have sworn he heard laughter.

* * *

**I feel like it's taking longer and longer to write these, and I'm trying really hard to not let that happen, but with my first year of college starting in a month, there's a lot to panic about. Anyway, I hope this section got a lot of questions out of the way, as it is (for those who have been counting) the end of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 will be all Danny's perspective, so let's get some excitement for that! :D**

**Also, an apology for not getting this out sooner. I've hit a bit of a wall writing the next Beta chapter, and I've gotten so used to posting at the same time, I had a huge argument with myself over whether or not to post this now or to wait. Obviously I've decided to post it, and I hope to keep writing more of this story through the block in the other story, which I hope will be resolved as soon as possible, so if you're reading that too, don't freak out, it's not over. **

**As always, support is vastly loved and never goes unappreciated. :)**

**-One**


	7. Chapter 2-1

Chapter II:

Danny

Something about enough years in high school made a person believe that all high schools must be like their own. Granted, Danny Fenton had no doubt that Casper High was something special, but it didn't make Norrisville High any less...special.

For the early arrivals of the kids of Amity Park, Friday morning started with a "short" assembly about how kids at this school _occasionally_ get turned into monsters; but not to worry because that's what the Ninja was there for. Danny had heard talk from other Norrisville citizens and had met the Ninja twice already, so, in all honesty, he didn't pay much attention. But then, neither did the most of the Amity Park kids.

Most of the seniors had been part of the first of two groups to move into Norrisville, so Danny got to sit between Sam and Tucker while listening to the other kids in their class complaining about how long this Principal Slimovits could talk for. Every other word out of the guys mouth was about how monsters were scary, scary, things, but that as long as they just ran and stayed out of the way, they would be fine. The seniors, having taken countless ghost attacks in perfect stride over the last four years, couldn't have cared less.

By the time the assembly was finished, it was second period with Sam, Tucker, Danny, and (Big Surprise) Mr. Lancer. Lancer gave them a short speech about getting used to the new scenery for a day before diving back into school work, and in a flash kids were turning in their seats, sitting on desks, and talking. Danny, Sam, and Tucker sat in their usual back corner, Danny and Tucker in seats and Sam on top of Danny's desk. While his friends talked, Danny busied himself on his phone, thoughts still spinning about the Norrisville Ninja and anything he may have said the day before that could be useful. He'd already dug through at least seven Ninja fan sites with little to show for it. It didn't help that almost every site was run by the same person. Whoever he was, kid was devoted.

"Look at how nice this place is," Tucker was saying. "Heard transfer students call Casper High a nice school, but compared to this place, Casper's a dump site."

"It's an energy wasteland," Sam disputed. "All the money and power they must put into the upkeep on those TVs..."

"They are moving forward in the technological world," Tucker argued. "These people aught to get a commendation."

"For wasting book money on flashy looks and TV screens? Yeah, _great_ use of federal funding."

"Actually," Danny interjected, "most of the school is funded by one Hannibal McFist." Danny held his phone for Sam to see. He'd looked up McFist the night before on a hunch of the Ninja's comment on the local rich guy building robots and saved a particularly helpful page to his phone. "Local billionaire. His logo's all over the place. Apparently his step-son goes to school here."

Sam huffed and Danny pulled his phone back to keep scrolling. "If only our billionaire and _mayor_ would put some of his money into our school system and less into his freakish hobbies," Sam said whistfully.

"He does, actually," Danny told her, rather passive. "He likes to remind me that the only reason the buildings keeps getting fixed after ghost hits is because he's paying everyone's repair bills. Apparently it helps him in the polls."

There was a silence while Sam and Tucker undoubtedly shared a look while Danny distracted himself with another fan site for the Norrisville Ninja.

"Want to spend free period exploring campus?" Tucker asked. "I hear they've got some sort of hidden second school underneath this one." Tucker nudged Danny with his arm. "We should put that intangibility to use."

It had been a kind of tradition for years now at Casper High that seniors got a free period before lunch. They were supposed to spend it in various class rooms or the library studying or putting together college applications, but, as long as they behaved, they were allowed to roam the halls. They'd all been warned that they would have to remain on there absolute best behavior to keep that privilege while at Norrisville High, but it wasn't likely to change anything. The previous week back at Casper High, Dash had set the new record for long distance hallway sprinting; seven halls and two sprints through the cafeteria before getting nailed by a teacher or running in the halls.

Danny had been spending most of his free periods fighting ghosts or patrolling the town, but Norrisville wasn't Amity Park. His friends had no reason to suspect a dozen versions of Technus to be hiding around the city. He'd thought about telling them about it, but he still wasn't even entirely sure what the situation was, and if they investigated on their own an got into some sort of trouble without him there, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. So he put a friendly smile on his face and went to say, "Sounds awesome," when the bell cut him off, dismissing the senior class for their free period.

On their way out, Mr. Lancer spoke up from his desk. Or rather the desk he was borrowing while the usual teacher was teaching a different class in another room of the building. "Mr. Fenton," he called. "If I may borrow a moment if your time."

"Sure, Mr. Lancer. I'll catch you later, guys," he added to his friends and they waved as they stepped outside. Danny moved to stand across the desk from Lancer. "If this is about the detentions I haven't finished yet, I promise I'll still make them up here. Just tell me what room, and I'll be there."

"As much as I appreciate that, this is about something else." Mr. Lancer spoke has he pulled out a piece of paper from a stack and began scrawling across it. "This school requires the students achieve a credit in Spanish. As we make this transition, it is not something we are requiring to graduate at this point, but we are showing some respect to how they operate here. Casper High students who have already utilized our own foreign language programs are not required to make any changes; those who have not, however..." Lancer gave Danny a look under his eyebrows and Danny felt his heart sinking. "You will be required to spend your free period in one of their level one Spanish classes. Now don't give me that face, Mr. Fenton." Danny made no effort to change his face. "You will not be the only senior going through this. It is merely a compromise between two differing school systems. If it makes you feel better, though," Lancer glanced around and leaned forward on his desk. "We are not even requiring that you pass. Merely that you attend. Should you show the same respect to attendance as per usual with you, however, we will have to take action."

Danny physically swallowed his frustration. "I understand,"

"Good." Mr. Lancer handed Danny a piece of paper with a room number printed on it as well as a note written in Lancer's own handwriting. "Here is where you need to go - and rest assured this is the only late pass you will be receiving."

Danny choked out a bitter thanks before walking out of the classroom. In the hall he stared blankly at the page for a moment before picking a direction down the hall at random and hoping he was moving in the right direction.

* * *

The late bell had long since rung by the time Danny made it to the class room. This school was just so _huge_ compared to Casper High. Sure, Casper wasn't exactly tiny, but the layout was fairly simple as the building was just a three story rectangle. Norrisville High was like some twisted attempt at making sure students had no idea where they were going at all times. It was no wonder they could manage to accommodate so many extra students all of a sudden - Danny had wandered into a wing of the building that looked brand new and was full of classrooms that had yet to be filled by the second round of Amity Park kids to arrive by Monday. A passing student in the hall told him they almost always had a back-up wing for when rooms were trashed by monsters.

Danny wasn't sure what to say to that.

When he finally pulled the right door open, he was surprised to see a room full of students - significantly smaller freshman students - and no teacher. Most of the kids were idly talking among themselves, but a girl near the front spotted Danny. "You one of the Amity Park kids?" Danny nodded. "You're lucky, Señora Jorge is running late. There are still some empty seats in the back of the class."

Danny said a word of thanks and moved to a desk in the back corner of the room. Several other kids from Amity Park were scattered in the back seats, flipping through Spanish books with lost expressions or trying to make some conversations with other people from their own school whom they'd never really talked with before. Danny himself pulled a class-set Spanish book from under his desk and flipped through two pages before coming to the conclusion that Dora the Explorer would not cut it as a study device for this class. Instead of continuing to try, he took to staring blankly at one of the pages and eavesdropping around the chatty class.

"...it took me another ten minutes to track down my bike. Found it wedged under a fallen tree..."

"...do the homework last night..."

"...you are so much better than him. Who really needs guys, anyway..."

"...guessing you didn't have time to look him up, did you?"

"...is it _usted_ or _tu_ in this sentence..."

"...this morning, but he actually is harder to find than a Kardashian."

"What kind of metaphor is that?"

"It hit me in the moment, okay? But there's got to be an easy way to find a-"

"Hey, Danny!"

Danny startled at his own name and looked up. "Valarie!" She smiled as she got his attention. "I thought you took French?"

"Yeah, but I didn't exactly pass the second semester. Busy bodies and all that, you understand." She gave him a sort of sly look and took a seat in the desk next to his. "You passed up on a second language all together, didn't you?"

"Busy bodies," he echoed.

In the time since the last incident with Valarie, Vlad, and Danielle, Danny and Valarie had reached a kind of...impasse. Danny had gotten caught watching Valarie hunting ghosts without her mask on, but they never talked about it. Vice versa, Danny was about ninety-eight percent sure that Valarie had put the pieces together on who Danny was. Again, they've never outright talked about it, and neither of them were about to start. Valarie always talked around the topic, skillfully avoiding it as if nothing had really changed, and Danny still spoke of Phantom like a different person - a habit Jazz had assured him would give him some sort of multiple personality disorder, if he didn't already have one. Bringing up anything openly was almost certain to lead to rejection from the other party in some form or another - be it a gun to the face or being weird-ed out by the an unhealthy obsession. Danny would never freak on Valarie like that, but the gun to the face was still up in the air, and losing a friendship over it wasn't a risk worth taking.

At the same time, they'd had entire conversations on the natures of ghosts and their own favorite fighting moves. But then what Amity Park resident didn't talk about ghosts? And they both already knew that Valarie was a black belt and Danny had gotten more than a few self defense lessons from his mom. Valarie had even stopped flat out disagreeing on any opinion he might let slip about not all ghosts being evil.

Danny found the situation unspeakably irritating.

But no way was he going to be the first to cave.

"I'm sure this can't be too bad, right?" Danny said. "They can't expect us to be up to speed, and it's not like me even have to pass."

Valarie's eyes widened. "Seriously? Who told you that?"

Danny shrugged. "Mr. Lancer. I think he has a soft spot for me, or something."

Valarie looked skeptical. "I don't know if that's freaky or incredibly useful."

"Let's go with useful," Danny decided. "Have you met your host family yet, or did you just get here this morning?"

"I got in this morning. I met one of the kids from the family before school started, though. He's one of the band geeks."

"There seem to be quite a bit of those here." Danny could point out at least two just in their class.

Valarie laughed. "No kidding. You got here yesterday, right?" She looked at Danny hopefully and he nodded. "Maybe you could, I don't know...show me around after school?"

Danny blinked. Was she flirting or was she just being friendly? Sam had been trying to teach him the signs of flirting and "reading the atmosphere" with little success. Even if she was flirting, it wasn't like he and Sam were officially _dating_ or anything. Sure they'd gone places without Tucker a few times and maybe looked at each other longer than necessary but it's not like that was like dating...was it?

Flirting or not though, there were still at least ten ghosts potentially haunting Norrisville, bad guys to look into, and a mysterious (yet youthful) Ninja that he had openly challenged to find is secret identity. Of course, he hadn't told the Ninja that he'd be paying the same favor. Eight hundred year old protector or not, everyone had to go home somewhere at the end of the day, and Danny knew from experience that heroes who wore masks wore them to protect from a broken nose. Danny didn't have any leads to go on yet, but he was already working on the suspicion that the Ninja was younger than he claimed. Danny had met few _ghosts_ that had been around that long, much less humans. There was a person behind that mask and Danny wanted to know who.

"Sorry," he said. "I was going to spend the free time catching up on work. Maybe cracking into one of these," he tapped the Spanish book, "just for the life experience." It wasn't a lie. Ghost hunting and related topics were definitely his work and if by some miracle he had some free time, he would most certainly _think_ about touching a Spanish book. He wanted to wonder when he started bending his words so naturally, but he was too busy watching Valarie's face for her reaction.

She didn't look particularly thrilled, but there was a kind of understanding behind her eyes that Danny wasn't sure how to interpret. "That's okay," she said. "I'll probably do the same."

Señora Jorge picked that moment to walk into the classroom, complaining some sort about the last minute addition to her classes before quieting them down and starting the lesson. Danny spent the rest of the class period forcing himself to make some sort of attempt at learning some real Spanish and getting relatively nowhere. He did, however, have a sort of epiphany about verbs that he'd just never really thought about before. An epiphany he was doomed to repeat on Monday because in the first moments after the bell rang the entire lesson flew out of his mind.

As he was packing up to leave, he fell into habit of listening around at conversations when he heard, from a voice he didn't recognize, "What the juice is a '_Technus_?'"

His head shot up from his bag. Plenty of Casper High students would know the name Technus - the ghost only spent five minutes shouting it every time he ran (or rather, flew) loose, but the voice rung a certain level of instinctual irritation with Danny that he didn't recognize from any voice of a Casper High student. He frantically scanned the retreating crowd for a face to put to the voice, but whoever was having the conversation was already gone.

* * *

**I AM SO SORRY**

**That's all I got, really. This took so much longer than necessary and I have no excuses. On the bright side, I'm already uber excited to write one of the scenes in the next chapter, so there's that. Also, if this wasn't clear already (I'm pretty sure I haven't said it) this fic throws Phantom Planet out the window. It can now also keep up with the cannon of all season 1 of RC9GN. Some stuff will obviously fly off the handle mid-story, when real serious stuff starts going down, but everything should miraculously balance out by the end.**

**Because shenanigans. **

**Anyone reading Beta, (hopefully a lot of you) I'll be working on that one hard core in my free time tomorrow, expect that one soon. **

**I also can't thank you enough for your patience and for all of the people following and writing reviews. Even the smallest review makes my face all warm and smiley. :)**

**-One**


	8. Chapter 2-2

Halfway through Danny's last period, he got a note with nothing more than a room number and the styled signature of Mr. Lancer.

Detention.

He'd found the room relatively easy this time. Sam and Tucker had made up a map of sorts during their free period and emailed Danny a copy during lunch. When he arrived after school, the teacher had yet to arrive, but there was already another kid sitting at one of the desks. He looked vaguely familiar, like he had been in one of Danny's classes that day, but he looked too young to be in most of them. He did have a few classes with smaller roll sheets that had merged with similar classes already at Norrisville High, for the sake of saving space. Those were all senior level classes, though.

_Must be from Spanish_, Danny thought, taking the empty seat next to him. They guy looked kind of like Danny pictured he looked his own freshman year: head resting on his arms and totally oblivious to the world every spare second he gets. Thanks to that, he knew from experience what happens when the teacher walks in and find you sleeping.

Danny reached over and gave him a small shove on the shoulder. "Hey," he tried. The kid gave a snuffle and buried his nose into the crook of his elbow. Danny shoved him a little harder. "Hey!"

The kid shot up in his seat. "Wha-where's the monster?" He shook his head roughly and ran a hand down his face. When he turned to Danny his eyes were clearer but confused. "What happened?"

"You were sleeping," Danny explained. "This is the detention room, right?"

The kid glanced around and up at the clock on the wall. "Oh, yeah, this is the right room." He turned in his seat and looked over all the empty desks. "I think."

Before Danny could ask, a tall, strong, teacher pushed the door open, roughly banging it against the wall. She had a baton in one hand and a clipboard in the other. "Welcome to detention, do-badders," she announced. "I will be your warden today. Or I would, but some snot-nose decided that the sousaphone was a perfect urinal and my drum majors and I have a hunt to continue. So I'm going to trust the both of you to stay here and be as miserable as possible until I come back to dismiss you. Can you do that?"

Danny and the other kid both nodded. The teacher - band director, if Danny was guessing right - narrowed her eyes toward the other kid's face. Danny followed her line of sight and his eyes widened when he saw the line of drool down the kid's chin.

"Were you sleeping, Cunningham?"

"What?" Cunningham ran a lighting fast hand over his face and wiped off the drool. "Absolutely not, I was just...hungry."

The teacher's eyes narrowed, but less suspicion showed in her eyes. "You ought to be," she grumbled. "You're a walking tooth-pick, get some meat on those bones." She looked Danny up and down. "You too, kid. You boys wouldn't last a _week_ in band camp"

Danny wasn't sure how to respond, so he just nodded.

She looked down at her clipboard and back up at Danny. "You Fenton comma Daniel?"

Danny nodded. "Yes ma'am," he said, not even trying to correct his name.

"Okay," she looked back down at the clipboard. "I've got you in here after shool through Monday. Cunningham, you're here through Tuesday."

Cunningham looked appalled. "But Señora Jorge said Lunes- I mean, Monday!"

"Well, we didn't have any detention yesterday, so you'll make up for it then. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a moron to find and re-potty train." With that, she strode out of the door and slammed it shut again behind her. Danny tried to convince himself that the sound of the door locking was just his imagination.

Danny looked back at the kid next to him. "Cunningham?"

"Randy," he answered. "Daniel?"

"_Danny,_" he stressed. "Please." Danny grew curious at a strange expression on Randy's face. "What?"

"Nothing, I just met this...never mind." Randy rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. "What are _you_ in for?"

"Skipping class one too many times. You?"

"An impressive collection of tardies."

Danny turned to look at the rows of empty seats behind them. "I didn't expect it to be this empty."

"Yeah, well I heard Bash skipped today."

"That's the rich guy's step son, right?" Randy nodded. "What year is he?"

"Junior, I think." Randy placed his elbows on his desk and propped his forehead up on his hands. "I heard he was held back a few times though." He tilted his head to look at Danny. "What about you?"

"I'm a senior this year."

Randy gave him a quizzical look. "Aren't you you one of the new kids in my Spanish class?"

Danny blinked. "Y'know what, I think I recognize the back of your head."

Randy laughed. "I'm told I have a very recognizable hair color."

Danny couldn't help but agree.

Outside the room, there was some sort of clamor going on. Shouts echoed down the empty halls and they could hear steps pounding across the floor. Several shadows passed by the door before it swung open, the band director from before sticking her head inside. She was panting and there was more shouting down the hallway. "He's getting away!" someone shouted.

The band director looked between the two of them. "Did I hear enjoyment?"

"Absolutely not, ma'am," Danny assured her.

"No funny business in here," Randy agreed.

She eyed them suspiciously for a moment before answering calls from her students and shut the door again.

Randy heaved his bag up off the ground, promptly dumped his books onto the floor, and arranged the empty bag on his desk. "Y'know what, if it's cool with you, I'm just gonna-" Randy let out a huge yawn, "I'm just gonna go back to sleep." He put his head back on his new bag pillow and within moments he was lightly snoring.

Danny slid further into his chair and listened to the clock on the wall tick away.

Only forty whole minutes left.

* * *

By the time Danny even considered turning in for the night, it was already Saturday. As soon as the sun had set, he'd expected some sort of mass attack of Technus's all over town. He'd expected to spend the entire night trying to toggle between fighting with everything he had and making sure that no pedestrians saw him or the ghosts. Instead he'd spent hours just flying around, invisible. His ghost sense would go off and he'd follow the pull off cold air wherever it lead, but, when he got there, Technus or his clones would already be gone. Danny would find the sliced and diced remains of some sort of gorilla robot and the occasional scorch marks. The last scene he found featured a vending machine with the vending slot frozen over and the ground layered in skittles.

He also couldn't help but notice all of the new lime skittles had been carefully smashed.

After the last late arrival at what Danny could only figure was the remains of a Ninja fight scene, Danny took to the skies. The extra equipment he had clipped to his belt knocked uncomfortably against his usual thermos as he flew. He was sure he'd have a bruise on his leg by morning, but by lunch it would be gone, anyway, so he sucked it up. When he got high enough above the rooftops to see the horizon, he stopped. The wind felt warm through his hair - but then in this form, everything felt warm. This was especially a problem when he was trying to find the things that should make him feel cold.

He did notice something on the building he'd just come out of, though. Twelve stories off the ground, swaying in the breeze from atop a particularly narrow stone spire, was a red scarf. If he looked closer and lit up his eyes a little, Danny could just barely make out and dark figure connected to it, hunched over a small light. Silently, Danny flew lower until he could make out the cell phone the light was coming from and where the Ninja's elbows were balanced on his knees to hold it up. Opting out of breathing, Danny lowered himself behind the Ninja. He watched him scroll through page after page of dull, purple Google links, giving frustrated huffs with each new page he tapped to.

Danny lifted his legs up behind him, rested his chin in his hands and slipped around his shoulder, just inside the peripheral vision the Ninja would have if he wasn't staring at a screen. As casually as possible, he said, "So you're a Google guy?" The Ninja nearly jumped out of his suit. "Gotta admit, if you used Bing I would have to never speak to you again."

The Ninja took a moment to steady himself and took a few deeps breaths. Danny took the same moment to feel pride in his ghostly ability to scare people. "What did Bing ever do to you?" he finally asked.

Danny pulled his feet back underneath himself and shrugged. He flipped his own smartphone out of a pocket on his belt and held it up. "They became the dominant search engine on Windows phones, that's what. Google never has to advertise outside of the Superbowl, and they do just fine. "

The Ninja didn't glorify that with a comment, but he did look him up and down critically while Danny put his phone away again. Without warning, he lifted his free hand and gave Danny a hard poke in the arm.

"Hey!" Danny moved his hand to his arm. "Do I even need to ask?"

"You said you're a ghost, too, right? I'm not imagining things?" Danny nodded. "Then why do you look so...I don't know, average?"

Danny looked down at himself, pointedly paying notice to the ground stories past his toes. He raised an eyebrow to the Ninja. "You must have a really warped perception of 'average'."

"Somehow I doubt yours is much better."

"Touché." It's not like the Ninja's question was a hard one. He looked average because he was essentially just a color-mixed version of what he otherwise looked like. It wasn't like he wanted to change that to look something ridiculous - like Vlad; Fruit-loop. "I guess I'm just special."

Danny was having trouble reading the Ninja's expressions under the mask, but he assumed the look was incredulous when he said, "You guess?"

"Okay, I'm a little special," he admitted. Danny pointed to the Ninja's phone in his hand. "What'd you find on me?"

"_Nothing,_" the Ninja grumbled.

Danny blinked. "Nothing?"

"_Nothing. _Nada. Zip. Zilch. Other than blurred photos from long-deleted websites and a few cult-conspiracy hubs, your a ghost. Well-" He shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, was that offensive?"

"Nah, I do that, too," Danny dismissed it easily. If he had a dime for every unintentional ghost pun... "There's really nothing?"

"Here," he handed Danny his phone. He took it and started scrolling the multiple search tabs left open. "Other than a map location and "A Nice Place to Live," Amity Park is a bust, too." The Ninja groaned and ran a hand over his face. "I can't even ask these stupid Tech-clones! As soon as I've got them cornered, they leave whatever robot they're - _possessing,_ or whatever, and I can't even touch them."

Danny looked up from the phone screen, eyebrows coming together. "How many have you run into?"

"Five, maybe six. Nothing as bad as yesterday, just a few robo-apes and a vending machine, but it's not like I've got a magic soup can." When he saw Danny's face, he asked, "Have you not found any?"

"For the last time, it's a _thermos_," Danny sighed, "and no. They must be avoiding me, or something. My ghost sense keeps going off, but it's like they won't stay still long enough to catch one."

"Can't you, like," the Ninja hummed around for the right words, "follow the trail, or something?"

"That's one way of putting it. But they keep cris-crossing each other's paths or hopping up and down buildings and I can't keep it all straight." Danny ran a hand through his hair. "It's kind of like someone scribbled ten lines around and on top of each other on a piece of paper and asked you to follow one."

"Like those place mat games for kids at restaurants?"

Danny had to smile at that. "Exactly."

"I always hated those," the Ninja admitted.

"Tell me about it."

Danny distracted himself for a few moments, enjoying the breeze and looking down past his feet. The scattered skittle colors that had spilled onto the sidewalk reminded him. "Oh, I think I found that vending machine and a few of those...robo-apes?" The Ninja nodded conformation for the name. "What was with the ice?"

"Ninja Cold Balls," he said pulling a few round, white patterned balls from the band around his waist. "What about you? That robot outside the school yesterday? Or is it two days ago?"

"Two days ago, and..." Danny lifted a hand and turned the air around cooled the air around it, coloring it blue with energy. "Ice powers." He pointed to the Cold Balls. "Where do you pull that stuff out of?"

The Ninja made an extravagant motion with his hand and when he held out his palm again, the balls were gone. "_Ninja secrets._"

Danny took the moment to unlatch the extra equipment from his belt. He handed it to the Ninja. "Think you can fit this in there, too?"

The Ninja took it warily. The metal was about the size of a large glasses case, but the Ninja's hand bounced at the unexpected weight. "What is it?"

"An ecto-sword." Danny tapped the circular green button at the top, causing the blade to unfold from the side. As the long blade segments clicked into place, it gained an stinging green glow. "The ghost hunters in Amity Park have got at least a dozen different kinds. They won't miss one."

The Ninja moved it around in his hand, flipping the blade around expertly. "Will this thing be able to hit the ghosts?"

"It should - actually, call me if it doesn't. The source isn't exactly the most reliable," he admitted, thinking about how he snatched it from his dad's side of the weapons vault before he left with the other kids. "That is, if you _can_ call me," he taunted. Danny told himself he had no plains on talking to the Ninja again unless the Ninja came to him - while he was human. If he was going to figure out the clone mystery, he needed to put all of his free time into it.

"I _will_," the Ninja insisted. "In fact, if I haven't my Monday night, I'll even give this back." He held up the ecto-sword.

"Big words to live up to," Danny warned him. "You are one in a long line who've tried to figure me out and failed."

The Ninja pushed a thumb into his chest. "Well make room, cause I'm about to make the all-star list."

Danny nodded fairly. "You keep believing that."

He turned to leave, scanning the horizon until he found the pyramid-shaped smudge. There was someone there he needed to have a talk with. Curiosity stopped him, though. He by all means wanted to drop everything for the weekend to get this fuss over with as quickly as possible, but he couldn't pass up the game of detective. Something in the Ninja's eyes was scratching at his memory. So, before he flew off into the stars - something he loved to do more than anything - he turned back around. "Actually, before I go, I do have one question."

The Ninja stood to his own toes, getting ready to leave himself. "What is it?"

"Are you a freshman?"

The Ninja's reaction was exceptional. He nearly tipped off his perch, flailing his arms to catch himself. "W-what the juice- I mean- I am the eight hundred year old guardian of Norrisville!" He placed his hands on his hips importantly and audibly dropped his voice. Danny had to hide a smile of self-recognition. "What would a centuries old ninja be doing in high school?" The Ninja gave one last important huff and shouted, "Smokebomb!" By the time the stench cleared from around Danny's face, the Ninja was gone.

The grin on Danny's face felt sadly foreign where his cheeks stretched. "I think that's all I needed."

* * *

**Okay, so this took longer than it should have, but then they all do, and, in my defense, I managed to crack and destroy my laptop screen on Sunday and we didn't get it fixed till Wednesday. So there's that.**

**Anyway, I've got a good start on the next chapter, and as long as I settle into my dorm quickly next week, I may be able to turn out one more chapter before my classes start. Wow, that's a terrifying thought. **

**As always, thank you so much for your support! One day I'll find a clever way of saying that, but today is not that day. **

**-One**


	9. Chapter 2-3

Danny had never seen the real pyramids in Egypt, but he imagined that if all the alien movies were true, the insides would look something akin to the inside of the work/living space of the McFist family. The hallways were endless when they weren't dead-ends, and when they were dead-ends, phasing through the wall lead back outside. Occasionally there was even a map on the wall that would detail the layout of whatever floor with a helpful "You Are Here" next to a red X. They were actually less helpful, as Danny found out relatively quickly that the maps were at least a year old and all sorts of freak science accidents lead to frequent remodels that had long rendered the maps useless. No one had taken the time to take the maps down.

Getting in had been the easy part. Getting out sounded easy about seven floors ago, and getting lost was something that had happened six floors ago, and getting to where he wanted to go started feeling like a hopeless dream about four circuitly-challenged robot monkeys ago. _Apes_, Danny reminded himself, for Sam's sake. _No tail, not a monkey_.

He was also pretty sure monkeys were smarter than that.

When Danny was floating down a hallway only to slam into an invisible wall, he knew he was moving in the right direction. Vlad had gotten rather creative with his ghost shielding as of late. Maybe it was that he almost never seemed to come up with an original invention idea, maybe it was the Fentons consistently one-upping every other thing he did, and maybe (most likely) it was the way Danny liked to remind him of these things every time Vlad made a quip about his mother. Which was three times as horrifying for those who knew just what kind of quips they were. The point, anyway, was that Vlad had nearly perfected an invisible ghost shield, no doubt working on theories put together from his own invisibility powers and that the shields already ran on a form of ectoplasm. The giveaway was a sort of floating, misplaced reflection of light off the surface, and a faint humming sound. Danny suspected the fix to the humming noise, at the least, was probably some simple misplaced screw or something along those lines.

But then science wasn't really Danny's thing.

Tricking ghost shields, on the other hand, was all over his thing.

Being able to hold his invisibility while transforming had taken practice - practice largely pressured by Jazz - but it had paid off. There was barely a flash of light over the dark metal halls when Danny changed and nary a whisper as his sneakers alighted on the ground. He wasn't able to use his powers while passing through the shield itself, but he only popped into existence for a blink before he was through.

Once through she shield, Danny was hit in the face with a presence that was so distinctly _Vlad_ that he could practically smell the bear-skin rugs, Swiss cheese, and...was that cat fur on the ground? Disregarding any self-portraits that may or may not have already been lining the walls, Danny was able to follow them down a hall to a regal wooden door that, judging by the scuffs around it, couldn't have been there for more than a day. If that wasn't enough, the small plaque that read MAYOR VLAD MASTERS was good enough for Danny.

Danny stepped through (as in_ through_) the door into a spacious office designed almost exactly like the mayor's office found in downtown Amity Park. It did have several differences, though. Like smaller windows, metal walls, and the carpet was more of a lavender. The biggest difference, without a doubt, was the presence of a mayor in the Mayor's seat.

Stepping fully through the door, Danny took the care to slide his dusty sneakers across the carpet with each step he took towards the desk Vlad sat behind, pouring over piles of papers, scratching his signature across every few pages. Danny leaned his invisible head over them, hoping to get a look for himself, when Vlad spoke up.

"If you're trying to be stealthy, my boy, you still have a long way to go," he drawled, setting his pen on the desk without looking up.

"Please," Danny let his invisibility drop and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Danielle can listen in on entire conversations from two feet behind you. I think I could sneak up on you if I was trying."

Vlad gave an irritable sigh and pressed his hands to his desk. "What do you want, Daniel? It's very late and I'm very busy."

Danny, casually as possible as an attempt to not spark up the anger too quickly, cut right to the point. "Why did you clone Technus a dozen times?"

Vlad looked up from under furrowed eyebrows. "What are you talking about-"

Danny cut him off, planting his own hands on the desk. "And what went wrong that set them all loose? They're all over town; it's only a matter of time before it's Amity Park all over again-"

Vlad stood from his chair, forcing Danny to look up at him. Not that 'up' was nearly as far as it used to be, but he still had a few inches on Danny. "Boy, I don't-"

Danny wasn't feeling the patience to deal with excuses. Excuses and smooth denial's were Vlad's specialty. It was inevitable that they would reach such a point, but Danny could wish. "What's your angle, Plasmius?"

Vlad gave a rough sigh and paced around the side his desk. "I don't have time for this."

Danny felt his frustration roll in his gut and he slammed a fist on the hard wood. "And the entire population of two cities doesn't have time for you to be holding anything back!"

"Because if the Guys in White find ghost evidence in Norrisville, we'll all be forced to move all over again? 'Amity Park, Round Two?'" Danny's frustration shifted to anger at Vlad's signature mocking tone. A tone practically reserved for talking about evil plots to Danny. "We are all well aware. However, as you also may have noticed, the two of us just seem to _attract ghosts_, don't we?" He was using his usual suave of arrogance as he spoke now, but Danny recognized the rough edge underneath. He took the liberty to speak with his hands. "Why do you think I have the ghost shield set up around this place? I took the liberty of setting one up in the walls of the apartment you took downtown, as well."

Danny's nails bit into his hands. "You what?"

"Now I myself, or any of my scanner for that matter, have yet to detect any ghosts; but, if you would do us all the liberty of staying inside the shield in your free time, perhaps whatever ghosts you seem to be deluding yourself about-" Danny had to make a physical effort to not let his eyes burn green "-may lead themselves to believe you're not here anymore and leave on their own."

Danny took a deep, less than calming, breath through his nose before speaking. "You're saying it's our fault there are ghosts in Norrisville? They were following us?"

Vlad placed his hands behind his back. "I'm saying it's a possibility. These shields I've developed can hide our ectosignitures arguably better than even our own human forms can. It may not be a definite, but if you would just stay inside and give it a try, we might be able to make it one. As opposed to running around invisible, trying to be the hero." Danny's jaw tightened. A smirk played on Vlad's lips when he noticed; Danny loathed how well Vlad could read his expressions. "That little stunt you pulled outside the school?" He scoffed. "And you're worried about the _other_ ghosts being found out. Though I do appreciate your steps towards getting rid of that ridiculous jump suit."

Danny hated himself for agreeing. The first time he'd partially transformed like that had been years ago during the Fenton Crammer incident, and then a little over a year ago it had happened again, completely by accident. His body was still that of a ghosts, but his clothes had changed into some sort of limbo between the jump suit and his normal clothes. All in all, the change was pretty useless; all the damage to his clothes that usually fixed itself with his suit stayed as real damage with his t-shirt and jeans. The only real upside that is had was that the form wasn't as easily detected as a ghost. In a test with Jazz, he would only blink onto the Fenton Finder screen for a few moments before disappearing again. It was like his body didn't know witch dimensional plane it wanted to exist on. It was for that reason he'd used it outside the school.

Danny's arms crossed over his chest. "I don't think you have any room to talk in the department of ridiculous ghost forms."

Vlad shook his head. "I like the believe you simply have an underdeveloped sense of style."

"I didn't come here to argue fashion, Plasmius."

"No, you didn't did you?" Vlad moved back behind his desk. "Regretfully, I have no information for you beyond what you already assume to know. My offer still stands for the better lodgings, you know. With your sweet Maddie and _Jack_," he spat the name, "staying behind in Amity Park, and all. No one should have to go through these sorts of life-changing ordeals alone, you know." It was true that the origional housing offer for Danny, since he would be coming to finish school without his family, was to live with Vlad, a close, trusted, family friend. It was also true that Danny shot it down like a bullet and signed up for a cheap apartment building. "There's a room right down the hall that I'm sure Mr. McFist would be happy to let you use," Vlad continued. "I think it's his step-son's second bedroom. He's just a year below you, yes? I'm sure you could get along. You're both ignorant and full of yourselves."

Danny gave up on holding his eyes back. "Gee, your persuasive skills are as great as ever."

Vlad gave a deep sigh. "I figured as much." He slid a drawer out from the desk. He reached inside and there was a small click. "I've dropped the ghost shield, if you'd like to let yourself out."

Unwilling to give Vlad any sort of satisfaction, Danny flickered his form out of sight and floated back through the door before transforming again. As he moved to fly out of the shield's range, though, he came up on a branching hallway corner and his face slammed right into something.

Danny slid across the floor on his back and popping out of invisibility involuntarily. He came to a stop before he hit where the ghost shield had stuttered back to life. Further down the hallway, there was a racket of metal on metal and an "Oomph!" Danny ran a hand over his head as he propped himself on his shoulders and looked up. A few feet away a girl in a black and red suit had landed on her rear end not far from her threateningly styled hover board. Danny recognized her immediately.

"Valerie!" He stuttered when she looked back at him through her visor. He waved a hand awkwardly. "H-hi. What's up?"

Valerie scowled. "What's up? That's all I get? What's up?" She pulled herself to her feet and bent over to pick up her board.

"Well what did you want, the weather?" Danny pulled himself off the ground gracefully and without his hands. "Sure, it's been a while, but it's not like we're horribly close...right?"

Valerie turned to him, her gaze cold. "You-" Danny withheld a flinch at the hurt in her voice. Through her teeth she hissed out a, "Whatever. What are you doing here?"

Danny pointed a thumb behind him. "Talking with everyone's favorite mayor. I take it that's why you're here?"

Valerie remounted her board and kicked several feet back off the ground. "Don't get me wrong," she said defensively, "the guy's a creep."

"Well, duh, I mean..." Danny trailed off. "He is?" The last time Phantom and Valerie had really talked, ghost to ghost hunter, had been months ago, during a fight with Skulker. It had been brief, to the point, and very little of what they did could really be seen as working together. The time before that had been when Valerie met Danielle. Danny could hardly figure out why, either. They'd been on relatively normal (or normal for them anyway) speaking terms one minute, and then for the next _month_ it was like she was avoiding him. For a while it had just been Phantom, but then he started to wonder if maybe she'd been trying to avoid Fenton, too, but wasn't able to because of school. Somewhere around that time they'd settled on the routine they had now: awkwardly avoiding each other's secrets.

Valerie sighed. "Look, we haven't really had a good chance to talk, but..." Her eyes glanced around the cold walls of the hallway, hesitating for a moment on one of Vlad's many portraits. "This isn't the best place, is it? I'll see you around, okay?" She leaned forward and maneuvered to move around Danny but he caught the edge of her board before she could pass.

Danny tried to crack the smirk she was used to seeing, but it felt wrong on his face. "You're not even going to _warn _about shooting me?"

In response, there was a flash, a blast and, before Danny could blink, he could smell singed hair. Sure enough, a small lock of his hair landed on his shoulder and a laser folded itself back into Valerie's own shoulder.

"Satisfied?" she asked smugly.

Danny shrugged. "Fair enough."

Without a second glance, Valerie pulled forward, shot safely through the ghost shield, and down the hall.

Danny took a moment to sigh before turning back down the hallway. His anger from the argument with Vlad had mostly faded, but there was still a knot in his gut that whispered this wasn't over. But then this was Vlad. Nothing was _ever_ over with Vlad. There was always something else, some new elaborate plot that Danny would have to undo before it backfired for both of them. One day it would all end somehow, it had to. Right?

Lost in thought and not willing to risk the hallways again, Danny turned intangible and shot himself skyward. Nothing sounded better than a good calming flight through the night before bed. As he phased up through one floor though, his head met with a sensation more complex than simple phasing. It only took him a fraction of a second to realize he'd gone up right into someone's foot and phase back through the floor. More carefully this time, he picked a different spot on the ceiling and phased his head through.

A dark skinned man in a stylish lab coat stood in an open doorway, reprimanding one of the monkey robots about something related to a "Whoopie World". His voice was a waterfall of sarcasm as he went on about getting un-banned for building a wicked roller coaster and how he would _love _to be kicked out of his favorite park again. The monkey moved a hand up and down the back of its head while the scientist closed and locked the door. "_Real _apes would work better than you," he was mumbling. With enough flair to topple a small horse, he turned and led the _ape_ down the hall. "This had better be good," he told it without turning around.

When they were both safely down the hallway, Danny slipped himself through the rest of the floor. Curious, he turned to the locked door. A small plaque read "PRIME MCFIST FILES."

Danny bit down on his lip and stared through the small glass window to the computer on the other side. The scientist had left it computer unlocked. The Ninja had told him McFist was a villain. If that was true, all the proof he needed, all the proof the _world_ would need, would be in his computer files. Any villain now-a-days had files like that. But then so did every hero. If anyone found the ghost files on Danny's phone, he'd be so busted.

Part of Danny wanted to go in there and e-mail himself a few incriminating pictures before tucking in for the night. He could sort out what to do with them tomorrow. But he didn't want to be a hypocrite either. He told the Ninja not to meddle in his ghost problems, it would look bad to turn around and meddle in the Ninja's.

_They aren't my enemies_, Danny reminded himself. _But they are someone else's..._

If Danny learned anything from Vlad, he learned that bad guys, particularly the rich ones, liked to keep tabs on their enemies.

Slipping through the door, he landed himself behind the computer. Lucky for him, there was already a computer window open for him to search an ocean of computer files. Experimentally, he typed in "Hannibal McFist" and pressed enter.

The file list exploded. The search just kept going, turning out dozens of file locations per second. The computer must have be hooked up to some sort of master main-frame. Overwhelmed, Danny slammed the stop-search button. He checked over his shoulder for the door, but it remained closed and untouched.

_It's not meddling_, he told himself. _It's just using my resources_.

Turning invisible, just in case, Danny turned back to the search bar. He carefully typed out "Ninja" and pressed ENTER.

* * *

**IM STILL HERE ITS NOT OVER PLEASE DONT BE SCARED OR RUN AWAY OR ANYTHING.**

**I just started college.**

**I'm so sorry this took so long but this college freshman thing is so different from the high school freshman thing I've already got so much to do but my writing tabs have been open almost perpetually since I posted the last chapters. And, as soon as this is up, a new tab will take its place. tabs are perpetually staring at me. I'll screen cap it sometime.**

**Also, there have been a lot of questions in reviews and I feel uncomfortable posting responses to them on top of the chapters. It's like lying about your word count and that's not cool. Most questions I leave alone because the answer will present itself later, but there are some that I want to answer but I don't know if they're rhetorical and it's all very confusing. So if you have anything you actually want answered, feel free to check out my tumblr. It's the same username (oneinsanenutjob) and I'll respond to anything you throw at me. Also, I post what I'm up to sometimes and you can see all my different forms of procrastination and send me messages yelling about it to get me to write faster.**

**Oh, and the sister story (Beta) should update in the next few days, it just needs some touching up.**

**Anyway, thanks for the patience, sorry this was so long, and I love you all!**

**-One**


End file.
